New Orleans has spent millions to expand its police surveillance powers in recent years, providing the city with an unprecedented ability to monitor public spaces and track individuals. Similar mass surveillance systems have rapidly spread to cities across the US in the last two decades, for the most part without any formal oversight or local regulation. As a result, the public is often left in the dark about what tools and techniques the police use to spy on them. In partnership with the Fund for Investigative Journalism, The Lens has spent the past year obtaining and reviewing thousands of city documents to get a snapshot of New Orleans’ current surveillance apparatus and the rapid, largely unchecked nature of its growth.