CPD Use of Clearview AI
The short version: Chicago Justice Project's leaked-email exposé shows City Hall denied facial recognition use while CPD quietly ran Clearview AI, proving surveillance oversight is often just theater.
Our Take
Credit to the Chicago Justice Project for digging through a hacked email dump and finding what a lot of us assumed all along: when officials say "we don't use that technology," they often mean "we don't want to talk about it." Mayor Lightfoot's office claiming ignorance of a Clearview AI contract — while CPD had been in bed with face recognition vendors since 2013 — isn't just an oops. It's a pattern. Surveillance tools get adopted quietly, deployed without public debate, and only confirmed once journalists or hackers force the issue.
This matters because facial recognition and ALPR systems like Flock's thrive in exactly this kind of darkness. Nobody votes on these contracts. Nobody gets a chance to weigh in before cameras go up or databases get built. The public finds out years later, usually through a leak, a lawsuit, or a reporter who won't let go. Chicago is just one data point in a much bigger map of departments saying one thing publicly and doing another operationally.
If you want to know what's actually watching you — not what officials claim is watching you — check our camera map and see what's been documented in your area. And if you're done waiting for city hall to volunteer the truth, our take-action page has steps for pushing back before the next contract gets signed in silence.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Chicago Justice Project, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.