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The Perdido Institute Is Open
The Perdido Institute is live. It is a Louisiana nonprofit I founded to protect New Orleans residents from unlawful surveillance and to hold city government to its own laws. The website is perdidoinstitute.com, and new writing will go on the Institute blog. Perdido is Spanish for lost. Privacy includes the right to be lost: to…
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September 2026 in Review
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…
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A Scoreboard for NOPD Accountability
Since July 2025, I’ve filed more than 100 complaints with NOPD’s Public Integrity Bureau (PIB). Most report officers asking Project NOLA to run facial recognition, which is unlawful. Others cover NOPD drone flights and NOPD blocking me on social media. PIB has issued 18 case numbers in response. Keeping track of which complaint ended up…
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NOPD’s Drone Dashboard Has an API 85 Flights Are Missing
In a September 1 post, NOPD announced a public drone dashboard ahead of its Drone as First Responder rollout. Superintendent Kirkpatrick framed it as balance: police smarter with technology, put guardrails in place, be transparent. I’ve been prying these records loose one request at a time all year — 273 flights with no logged reason for 206 of them in January–April, then better paperwork over the…
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NOPD Mass Surveillance: November 2025
I’ve obtained another public records production from the City of New Orleans — request 26-651, 69 pages of email between NOPD officers and Bryan Lagarde of Project NOLA, the private nonprofit that runs a facial-recognition-equipped camera network across the city. 26-651_Redacted.pdf What’s in it The emails run from November 1 to November 30, 2025 —…