September was a strong month in the fight against illegal surveillance in New Orleans. More complaints filed, more records pried loose, more of NOPD’s own numbers checked against NOPD’s own records. None of it works without the people who read, share, sign, and show up. Thank you for the support. Your assistance turns a stack of public records into pressure.
One ask up front: sign the petition. It goes to the City Council and Mayor Moreno. We’re at 418 signatures. Sign it, share it on social media, and ask your friends to sign. Everything below is the reason it exists.
September by the numbers
| Metric | September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Complaints filed | 7 |
| Complaints adjudicated by PIB | 1 |
| Sustained | 0 |
| Closed without investigation (“Other as approved by the Captain”) | 1 |
| Cases still awaiting a closing letter | 8 |
| Public records requests filed | 5 |
| Records productions received | 2 |
| Public meetups | 0 |
| Blog posts | 11 |
| IG Videos | 1 |
In September I finished reviewing every October and November 2025 email between NOPD and Project NOLA (productions 26-650 and 26-651). Every thread where an NOPD officer asked a private facial recognition network to find someone is now a filed complaint. December 2025 is next, and I’m blocked. Request 26-652 has been open since January 12. More than eight months and no records.
Here’s my September work:
Sep 1 — NOPD Remains Unaccountable: Drone Report Numbers Don’t Match Flight Logs. NOPD’s own log shows 273 Q1 flights. Its “transparency” release reported 209. (IG)
Sep 2 — Last complaint from 26-651. Det. Brody Bonura, Nov 1, 2025 thread.
Sep 8 — August 2026 in Review. Filed the August records cycle: NOPD–Project NOLA communications (26-19293), facial recognition forms (26-19294), LA-SAFE requests (26-19295), drone logs (26-19296). First complaint from 26-650: Det. John R. Huntington, Oct 31, 2025. (IG)
Sep 9 — Two more. Det. Michael P. Lane sent Project NOLA three face photos of a stabbing victim and asked them to track him. Det. Brody L. Bonura, Oct 28. (IG)
Sep 10 — Complaint against NOPD Public Affairs. @nopdnews limited comments on a Department post so only praise remains. PIB docketed it as 2026-0126-I on Sep 22 and closed it Sep 28 with one box checked: “Other as approved by the Captain.” That reason appears nowhere in Chapter 52.1. I’m escalating to the Independent Police Monitor and Inspector General.
Sep 10–11 — New tools. Published the monthly-surveillance-recap and nopd-frt-complaint skills. The second turns a records production into filed PIB complaints.
Sep 12 — NOPD Ran Facial Recognition on a Robbery Victim. Det. Patrick T. Guidry sent the victim’s photo. Lagarde sent back a month of surveillance on a woman who walked beside him. Guidry: “This is very helpful.” Det. Jonathan A. Soto followed Sep 13.
Sep 14 — NOPD April–August 2026 Drone Flights: Better Paperwork Same Mass Surveillance. 158 flights. 68% “Special Event.” 65% with no item number.
Sep 15 — NOPD Mass Surveillance: October 2025. Production 26-650, 80 pages, five complaints. In three of seven threads the target was the person who called the police.
Sep 21 — Asking NOPD for Its Axon License Plate Reader Audit Logs. Filed 26-20324. Template included.
Sep 22 — The 2027 Budget Rewards the One Department That Hasn’t Earned It. NOPD’s General Fund grows while Public Works loses 36%.
Sep 23 — NOPD Mass Surveillance: November 2025. Production 26-651, 69 pages, eight complaints. Five of seven came out of the 8th District.
Sep 25 — NOPD’s Drone Dashboard Has an API; 85 Flights Are Missing. The dashboard is a public ArcGIS endpoint (script). It shows 188 flights for January–April; my records request produced 273. Same day: A Scoreboard for NOPD Accountability. 100+ complaints, 18 case numbers, two sustained, 62 closed under one letter. Tracker and nopd-pib-case-tracker skill.
Sep 11–30 — The City answered. Released the January–August drone log (26-10297), then closed the May through August drone requests as covered by it, though it stops at Aug 8. Released the June FRT request log (26-14634). Demanded employee names, a two-week window and five search terms for two email requests; I declined under R.S. 44:32. Closed the July LA-SAFE request (26-16984) as “pending criminal litigation,” then reopened it the next morning when I objected. Closed the Axon audit request under the security-procedures exemption. 26-652, filed January 12, is still open.
That’s the month. That’s September 2026. Now the ask again, because it’s the only thing on this page that scales:
Sign the petition. Share it. Then ask one friend who lives in New Orleans to sign too.
