(Jun17) The NYPD's facial recognition technology
The short version: A YouTube explainer from I GOT THIS digs into NYPD's facial recognition cameras and where they're quietly installed across the city.
Our Take
Credit to the channel I GOT THIS for pulling back the curtain on NYPD's facial recognition setup — and specifically for asking the question that matters most: not just what the tech can do, but where it's watching from. Camera placement is never neutral. It tells you whose neighborhoods get treated like open-air lineups and whose don't.
This is the same pattern we track with Flock Safety's ALPR network nationwide. Facial recognition and license plate readers are different technologies solving the same problem for law enforcement: how do you turn every sidewalk and intersection into a permanent, searchable record of who was there and when. Once that infrastructure exists, mission creep is basically guaranteed — today's narrow use case is tomorrow's general-purpose tracking tool, and the public rarely gets a vote on the expansion.
New Yorkers deserve to know exactly what's bolted to the poles above their heads, and so does everyone else. That's why we built our camera map — to make this infrastructure visible instead of invisible. If you want to push back on unchecked surveillance in your own city, our take-action page has concrete steps to start with.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of I GOT THIS, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.