November 2023

While the new “public safety” cameras may lend a dismaying dystopian look to the city’s oldest neighborhood, Vieux Carré residents and businesses are hopeful they’ll help deter crime.

- by Frank Perez and Ellis Anderson

photos by Ellis Anderson 

The city began installing 104 additional surveillance cameras in the French Quarter this week and when the project is complete, one will monitor every corner of the historic neighborhood in the hopes of reducing crime. In addition, license plate readers are being installed at all entry points to the Quarter. The devices are going live immediately after installation.

The Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC), which oversees the camera installation and monitoring, anticipated “substantial completion before the end of the year.” The RTCC is not directly affiliated with NOPD and falls under the city’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.  According to the city website, they “provide critical information to first responders in the field and assist with the investigations of criminal activity or quality of life concerns.”

The cameras provide live feeds which are constantly monitored by RTCC, which refers to them as public safety cameras.  According to their website, when a 911 call is made, “cameras near the incident automatically spin up, allowing RTCC technicians to communicate what they see on the scene directly to responding public safety personnel.”  The agency states it does not use facial recognition software.

The expansion of the existing surveillance system was approved by the New Orleans City Council at the request of the French Quarter Management District (FQMD). According to a September 2022 article in The Lens, “The plan includes $37,500 to rent 20 license plate readers for a year, $420,000 to buy 70 new cameras and $70,000 for data plans to connect those cameras to the Real Time Crime Center. The plan also includes $195,000 for new streetlights and $50,000 for homeless case managers.”

The expansion of the surveillance system is being funded through a dedicated 0.0245% sales tax charged only in the French Quarter.  It was first levied in 2016.  This tax initially paid for the State Trooper patrols in the French Quarter and later the French Quarter Task Force patrols.

When French Quarter residents voted in April 2021 to approve the tax for another five years, a new agreement was established between the City of New Orleans, the French Quarter Management District and the French Quarter Economic Development District.   This “Quarter for the Quarter” tax is levied by the French Quarter Economic Development District (which consists of all seven City Council members) and administered by the FQMD.

Robert Simms, a long-time French Quarter resident, is a mayoral appointee to the FQMD board of commissioners and nine years ago, co-founded, with Sidney Torres, the French Quarter Task Force. Simms has helped the 8th District NOPD with the operations of the program and its app ever since. 

In an FQJ interview on November 8, Simms said that the first $2 million dollars raised by the special French Quarter tax every year must be used to fund the supplemental police patrols in the neighborhood. He said that the program uses NOPD officers working overtime with up to 30 4-hour shifts patrolling the French Quarter each day (which averages out to an additional five officers patrolling the area over a 24-hour period).

Since the tax is generating a healthy surplus – to the tune of a million or more a year – those additional funds can be used for additional patrols and other public safety projects, including homeless assistance.

“This is all coming from money paid for by French Quarter residents and sales tax generated in the Quarter,” said Simms, giving an example: “Every time you and I go to Rouse’s, we’re contributing.”

“Some people say good things about the cameras and some people say bad things,” continued Simms. “I don’t like the looks of them, they’re ugly.  They don’t blend very well with the aesthetics of the French Quarter. And I’m a strong opponent of people watching, in real time, what you’re doing [in ordinary activities on the street]. That’s not the intention of these cameras.  

“But most crimes in the Quarter are solved because of video,” in real-time as well as in the aftermath of a crime.  For instance, if a crime occurs, “police can contact the RTCC and ask them to pull up cameras and give them information.”

Simms also pointed out that there is already a network of 1,500 cameras in the French Quarter, in addition to city-owned crime cameras, that are privately owned by neighborhood residents and businesses that are registered with the 8th District on the SafeCams8 program.

But the range of these cameras is often limited and the quality is inconsistent.  With the new cameras on every corner, coverage will be complete. Simms says they’ll be covering an area that’s slightly bigger than what most people think of the French Quarter.  While they’ll cover only the Quarter side of Canal Street, they’ll take in both sides of South Rampart and Esplanade Avenue, all the way to the river.   

Although sold as a tool to fight crime, the cameras are used for a variety of non-crime-related purposes. The RTCC feeds are tied in with the New Orleans Police Department, the New Orleans Fire Department, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services, and New Orleans Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness.

According to FQMD, the cameras provide: real-time investigatory information for officers responding to a crime, traffic information for emergency vehicles during special events, situational awareness and investigatory information during life-threatening emergencies, investigatory support for reports of illegal dumping and other quality-of-life issues, real-time information on flooding and other hazards during storms.

When asked if he expects the cameras to be a deterrent to crime, as well as a tool to prosecute offenders, Simms said “It’s possible.”

He noted that in instances of fighting and domestic arguments, cameras already in place have rarely acted as deterrents.  “People tend to be so worked up emotionally, they don’t realize they’re beneath a camera or don’t care.”  

But Simms is taking a wait-and-see stance on the deterrence effect on crimes like theft. “With these cameras on every corner, if people are doing something bad in the French Quarter and they’re walking, biking or in a car, NOPD is going to have very good video of them.”