A new map of NYC's cameras shows more surveillance in Black and brown neighborhoods

Areas of New York City with higher rates of "stop-and-frisk" police searches have more closed-circuit TV cameras, according to a new report from Amnesty International's Decode Surveillance NYC project. Beginning in April 2021, over 7,000 volunteers began surveying New York City's streets through Google Street View to document the location of cameras; the volunteers assessed 45,000 intersections three times each and identified over 25,500 cameras. The report estimates that around 3,300 of these cameras are publicly owned and in use by government and law enforcement. The project used this data to create a map marking the coordinates of all 25,500 cameras with the help of BetaNYC, a civic organization with a focus on technology, and contracted data scientists. Analysis of this data showed that in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, there were more publicly owned cameras in census tracts with higher concentrations of people of color.