Latest news with #FrenchQuarter
Wall Street Journal
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
House of the Week: A Pair of Historic Homes in New Orleans
Ken Fulk is a New Orleans habitué, who has been inspired by the city's music, culture and architecture. In 2021, the designer, who splits his time between San Francisco, New York and Provincetown, Mass., jumped at the chance to buy and restore two homes built in the 1800s in the city's French Quarter. Fulk, 60, paid $2.45 million for the main house and $1.58 million for the guest house, both previously owned by hoteliers Frances and Rodney Smith. The Smiths also owned the nearby Soniat House Hotel, where Fulk was a regular during his trips to New the Smiths listed the Soniat for sale, Fulk bought the hotel and several nearby buildings, including the two homes.' It was a kismet moment,' he says. 'It was almost like, 'How could we not do this?''
CNN
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
This controversial technology is helping to find the escaped New Orleans inmates
Minutes after Louisiana State Police got word on Friday morning that 10 inmates had escaped a New Orleans jail, two of them were spotted on facial recognition cameras in the city's French Quarter. Police arrested one of the escapees shortly after; the other, days later. The cameras were part of a network of around 5,000 operated around the city by the non-profit Project NOLA, 200 of which are outfitted with facial recognition technology. State police had shared information about the jailbreak with the organization. The incident marks a win for the organization, whose camera network is believed to be unprecedented in the United States. The group is emblematic of a growing — albeit controversial — push to use facial recognition technology to help solve crimes. 'This is the exact reason why facial recognition technology is so critical,' New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said during a press conference earlier this week. But as adoption of the technology has grown, advocacy groups warn that it could undermine individual privacy. Even worse, inaccurate matches by facial recognition technology systems run by police departments elsewhere have led to false arrests in other cities. In New Orleans, those concerns may be heightened by the fact that Project NOLA is independent from local law enforcement agencies — although it shares information with police — and therefore isn't necessarily subject to the same scrutiny or accountability. 'This is the stuff of authoritarian surveillance states, and has no place in American policing,' Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said in a statement following a Washington Post report about the effort earlier this week. But Project NOLA is a community endeavor, said Executive Director Bryan Lagarde, supported by the churches, schools, businesses and individual homeowners who he says allow the group to place cameras on their properties and can remove them at any time. 'This has been a community endeavor from the very beginning,' Lagarde told CNN. 'If we ever violate public trust, (the camera network) comes down instantly and effortlessly by the community that built it.' Project NOLA was created in 2009 to be a 'force multiplier' for local law enforcement agencies, whose resources had been impacted by Hurricane Katrina, Lagarde said. Today, the non-profit also operates 5,000 cameras in other cities around the country. Project NOLA takes images of wanted suspects from law enforcement 'be on the lookout' alerts and feeds them into its 'hot list' system. When its network of facial recognition cameras identifies a potential match, it sends a real-time alert to law enforcement. That's what happened on Friday, when two of the escaped inmates walked in front of Project NOLA cameras mounted on local businesses in New Orleans' French Quarter. One was arrested shortly after. The other was tracked to a housing complex where Project NOLA does not have cameras but was arrested on Tuesday thanks in part to the information provided by Project NOLA about his likely location, according to the group. Five escapees from the Friday jailbreak remain at large. Project NOLA cameras were also used to investigate the New Orleans terror attack last New Year's Day that killed 14 people. Lagarde declined to provide the name of the third-party company that makes the facial recognition artificial intelligence model the group uses in its cameras. As with many applications of AI, there is no federal regulation regarding whether and how AI can be used by local law enforcement. But a number of other cities have barred the use of facial recognition by government agencies, including police, over concerns about its efficacy and ethical implications. Research has shown that the technology is less effective at correctly identifying women and people of color than white men, fueling worries that the tech's shortcomings could have an outsize impact on historically marginalized groups. Given the history of racial bias within some US police forces, 'Black and other people of color are at greater risk of misidentification,' when facial recognition is brought into the fold, Nicol Turner Lee and Caitlin Chin Rothman wrote in a 2022 Brookings report. CNN has reached out to NOPD for comment regarding its relationship with Project NOLA. Kirkpatrick, the police superintendent, told the Washington Post earlier this week that her agency had launched a review of officers' use of alerts provided by Project NOLA, the accuracy of the information the group provides and how the partnership fits within city rules. Lagarde said Project NOLA has aimed to be transparent with the New Orleans community about its work, including by partnering with locals to put up its cameras and posting about its work on social media. 'All of our data is on-network, which means it comes from our own network of cameras. Our cameras are on people's homes, business, churches, schools… The facial recognition is not being paid for by tax dollars. It is not accessible directly by law enforcement,' he said. 'So, you know, we are the gatekeepers. We check everything that goes into the system make sure it's valid.'
CNN
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
This controversial technology is helping to find the escaped New Orleans inmates
Minutes after Louisiana State Police got word on Friday morning that 10 inmates had escaped a New Orleans jail, two of them were spotted on facial recognition cameras in the city's French Quarter. Police arrested one of the escapees shortly after; the other, days later. The cameras were part of a network of around 5,000 operated around the city by the non-profit Project NOLA, 200 of which are outfitted with facial recognition technology. State police had shared information about the jailbreak with the organization. The incident marks a win for the organization, whose camera network is believed to be unprecedented in the United States. The group is emblematic of a growing — albeit controversial — push to use facial recognition technology to help solve crimes. 'This is the exact reason why facial recognition technology is so critical,' New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said during a press conference earlier this week. But as adoption of the technology has grown, advocacy groups warn that it could undermine individual privacy. Even worse, inaccurate matches by facial recognition technology systems run by police departments elsewhere have led to false arrests in other cities. In New Orleans, those concerns may be heightened by the fact that Project NOLA is independent from local law enforcement agencies — although it shares information with police — and therefore isn't necessarily subject to the same scrutiny or accountability. 'This is the stuff of authoritarian surveillance states, and has no place in American policing,' Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said in a statement following a Washington Post report about the effort earlier this week. But Project NOLA is a community endeavor, said Executive Director Bryan Lagarde, supported by the churches, schools, businesses and individual homeowners who he says allow the group to place cameras on their properties and can remove them at any time. 'This has been a community endeavor from the very beginning,' Lagarde told CNN. 'If we ever violate public trust, (the camera network) comes down instantly and effortlessly by the community that built it.' Project NOLA was created in 2009 to be a 'force multiplier' for local law enforcement agencies, whose resources had been impacted by Hurricane Katrina, Lagarde said. Today, the non-profit also operates 5,000 cameras in other cities around the country. Project NOLA takes images of wanted suspects from law enforcement 'be on the lookout' alerts and feeds them into its 'hot list' system. When its network of facial recognition cameras identifies a potential match, it sends a real-time alert to law enforcement. That's what happened on Friday, when two of the escaped inmates walked in front of Project NOLA cameras mounted on local businesses in New Orleans' French Quarter. One was arrested shortly after. The other was tracked to a housing complex where Project NOLA does not have cameras but was arrested on Tuesday thanks in part to the information provided by Project NOLA about his likely location, according to the group. Five escapees from the Friday jailbreak remain at large. Project NOLA cameras were also used to investigate the New Orleans terror attack last New Year's Day that killed 14 people. Lagarde declined to provide the name of the third-party company that makes the facial recognition artificial intelligence model the group uses in its cameras. As with many applications of AI, there is no federal regulation regarding whether and how AI can be used by local law enforcement. But a number of other cities have barred the use of facial recognition by government agencies, including police, over concerns about its efficacy and ethical implications. Research has shown that the technology is less effective at correctly identifying women and people of color than white men, fueling worries that the tech's shortcomings could have an outsize impact on historically marginalized groups. Given the history of racial bias within some US police forces, 'Black and other people of color are at greater risk of misidentification,' when facial recognition is brought into the fold, Nicol Turner Lee and Caitlin Chin Rothman wrote in a 2022 Brookings report. CNN has reached out to NOPD for comment regarding its relationship with Project NOLA. Kirkpatrick, the police superintendent, told the Washington Post earlier this week that her agency had launched a review of officers' use of alerts provided by Project NOLA, the accuracy of the information the group provides and how the partnership fits within city rules. Lagarde said Project NOLA has aimed to be transparent with the New Orleans community about its work, including by partnering with locals to put up its cameras and posting about its work on social media. 'All of our data is on-network, which means it comes from our own network of cameras. Our cameras are on people's homes, business, churches, schools… The facial recognition is not being paid for by tax dollars. It is not accessible directly by law enforcement,' he said. 'So, you know, we are the gatekeepers. We check everything that goes into the system make sure it's valid.'
CNN
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
This controversial technology is helping to find the escaped New Orleans inmates
Minutes after Louisiana State Police got word on Friday morning that 10 inmates had escaped a New Orleans jail, two of them were spotted on facial recognition cameras in the city's French Quarter. Police arrested one of the escapees shortly after; the other, days later. The cameras were part of a network of around 5,000 operated around the city by the non-profit Project NOLA, 200 of which are outfitted with facial recognition technology. State police had shared information about the jailbreak with the organization. The incident marks a win for the organization, whose camera network is believed to be unprecedented in the United States. The group is emblematic of a growing — albeit controversial — push to use facial recognition technology to help solve crimes. 'This is the exact reason why facial recognition technology is so critical,' New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said during a press conference earlier this week. But as adoption of the technology has grown, advocacy groups warn that it could undermine individual privacy. Even worse, inaccurate matches by facial recognition technology systems run by police departments elsewhere have led to false arrests in other cities. In New Orleans, those concerns may be heightened by the fact that Project NOLA is independent from local law enforcement agencies — although it shares information with police — and therefore isn't necessarily subject to the same scrutiny or accountability. 'This is the stuff of authoritarian surveillance states, and has no place in American policing,' Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said in a statement following a Washington Post report about the effort earlier this week. But Project NOLA is a community endeavor, said Executive Director Bryan Lagarde, supported by the churches, schools, businesses and individual homeowners who he says allow the group to place cameras on their properties and can remove them at any time. 'This has been a community endeavor from the very beginning,' Lagarde told CNN. 'If we ever violate public trust, (the camera network) comes down instantly and effortlessly by the community that built it.' Project NOLA was created in 2009 to be a 'force multiplier' for local law enforcement agencies, whose resources had been impacted by Hurricane Katrina, Lagarde said. Today, the non-profit also operates 5,000 cameras in other cities around the country. Project NOLA takes images of wanted suspects from law enforcement 'be on the lookout' alerts and feeds them into its 'hot list' system. When its network of facial recognition cameras identifies a potential match, it sends a real-time alert to law enforcement. That's what happened on Friday, when two of the escaped inmates walked in front of Project NOLA cameras mounted on local businesses in New Orleans' French Quarter. One was arrested shortly after. The other was tracked to a housing complex where Project NOLA does not have cameras but was arrested on Tuesday thanks in part to the information provided by Project NOLA about his likely location, according to the group. Five escapees from the Friday jailbreak remain at large. Project NOLA cameras were also used to investigate the New Orleans terror attack last New Year's Day that killed 14 people. Lagarde declined to provide the name of the third-party company that makes the facial recognition artificial intelligence model the group uses in its cameras. As with many applications of AI, there is no federal regulation regarding whether and how AI can be used by local law enforcement. But a number of other cities have barred the use of facial recognition by government agencies, including police, over concerns about its efficacy and ethical implications. Research has shown that the technology is less effective at correctly identifying women and people of color than white men, fueling worries that the tech's shortcomings could have an outsize impact on historically marginalized groups. Given the history of racial bias within some US police forces, 'Black and other people of color are at greater risk of misidentification,' when facial recognition is brought into the fold, Nicol Turner Lee and Caitlin Chin Rothman wrote in a 2022 Brookings report. CNN has reached out to NOPD for comment regarding its relationship with Project NOLA. Kirkpatrick, the police superintendent, told the Washington Post earlier this week that her agency had launched a review of officers' use of alerts provided by Project NOLA, the accuracy of the information the group provides and how the partnership fits within city rules. Lagarde said Project NOLA has aimed to be transparent with the New Orleans community about its work, including by partnering with locals to put up its cameras and posting about its work on social media. 'All of our data is on-network, which means it comes from our own network of cameras. Our cameras are on people's homes, business, churches, schools… The facial recognition is not being paid for by tax dollars. It is not accessible directly by law enforcement,' he said. 'So, you know, we are the gatekeepers. We check everything that goes into the system make sure it's valid.'
New York Times
19-05-2025
- New York Times
Louisiana Seeks Escaped Inmates, and Answers About Their Brazen Escape
The first of the escaped inmates was chased through the French Quarter, not even two miles from the New Orleans city jail. He was caught several hours after he and nine other inmates had fled the jail through a hole in a cell wall. The second was tracked down not long after, through a call to a tip line. A third was found on the other side of the city, arrested at the end of the first day following their brazen escape. Since then, nothing. Four days into the manhunt, seven other men have continued to evade capture. Their jailbreak has alarmed and captivated New Orleans, as details have emerged about their dash across Interstate 10 on foot and a taunting misspelled message left behind: 'to easy LOL.' The escape has also brought new scrutiny on the Orleans Parish jail, a long-troubled facility with a history of poor conditions and insufficient oversight of inmates. Investigators said they had received intelligence on all of the escaped inmates, who ranged from 19 to 42 and were being held on charges including murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and carrying illegal weapons. But their pursuit has resulted in dead ends and tips that have gotten the authorities close — but not close enough. 'We end up getting there just a little too late,' Col. Robert P. Hodges, the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said in a news conference on Sunday evening. Officials suggested the inmates might be getting help from friends and relatives. As the sprawling search continues, officials have cautioned residents to be on alert. They also asked them to report any possible sightings or other information about the escapees. But they said the city was largely operating normally. The jailbreak punctuated what had already been a strange and turbulent year, starting with a terror attack on New Year's Day that left 14 people dead after a man rammed his truck into revelers in the French Quarter. The attack increased the already plentiful disruptions and security precautions that come with hosting the Super Bowl. And before January was over, a winter storm dumped more snow on New Orleans than the city had seen during most residents' lifetimes. Now, with an escape that could be one of the largest in Louisiana's history, the city finds itself looking not just for the men, but also an understanding of how the inmates were able to pull it off, possibly with inside help. Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana said the jailbreak 'should never have happened' and demanded answers in the Sunday news conference. 'The public deserves to know who, what and how this happened,' he said. The jail, run by the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office, has been under a federal consent decree — an agreement under which officials work to meet federal standards — since 2013. Problems include overcrowding and understaffing. A federal monitor and others have also complained of lax oversight, with some areas of the jail going unsupervised for hours. The sheriff's office has said that about a third of the cameras in the jail don't work, and have cited 'defective locks and doors' — an issue that it claims to have raised with city officials and the federal judge monitoring the jail. Mr. Landry also sought to cast blame for the escape on broader failings of the criminal justice system. Cracking down on crime and violence has been a defining theme of his administration since he took office last year. 'There is also no excuse for the way these cases are currently being mismanaged by our criminal justice system,' the governor said. Some of the escapees, like other inmates at the jail, had been there for lengthy periods — in some cases, at least two years — while awaiting trial or sentencing. Jails are generally meant to hold inmates for short periods of time; prisons are designed to hold people who have been convicted and are serving longer sentences. One of the escaped men who is still at large, Derrick Groves, 27, was accused of killing two people and injuring two others during Mardi Gras in 2018. He was convicted in 2019, but the jury's verdict was not unanimous, and a new law led to a retrial. That retrial was declared a mistrial after a juror read news coverage of the case. Another trial in 2023 resulted in a deadlocked jury. Mr. Groves was convicted in a fourth trial last year, and is waiting to be sentenced for second-degree murder. The breakout happened early Friday morning. Cameras caught several of the inmates jarring open a cell door at 12:22 a.m.; about 20 minutes later, more had crammed into the cell. At the time, no sheriff's deputy was on duty in that part of the jail, and a civilian employee monitoring the cameras had stepped away for food, officials said. Three employees have been suspended without pay while an internal investigation is underway, officials with the sheriff's office said. Inside the cell, a metal toilet and sink had been torn out of the wall, and a hole had been carved just large enough for the men to squeeze through. At 1 a.m., video footage showed the men running out of a loading dock, with some of them having swapped their jail uniforms for street clothes. Nineteen minutes later, they scaled a fence, using blankets to protect themselves from the barbed wire, and ran across the interstate into a nearby neighborhood. 'These inmates are accused of serious crimes, and until they are back in custody we should all remain vigilant,' said Jonathan Tapp, special agent in charge of the F.B.I. in New Orleans. Officials had another warning for residents: Do not help them. 'If anybody harbors them,' Governor Landry said, 'if anybody aids them, and we find out, we will arrest you, and we will bring you to justice as well.'
