Amensty investigation found that the NYPD has over 15,000 active CCTV cameras with facial recognition in NYC, and most of them are located at ethnic neighborhoods.
Thousands of volunteers looked at google maps photos and found the locations of public and private cameras. They found than 3,590 are in Manhattan, 8,220 are in Brooklyn and 3,470 cameras are the Bronx. Queens and Staten Island were still counting.
Amnesty blamed the city for placing most cameras at predominantly multicultural neighborhoods. In east New York neighborhood in Brooklyn they have found the highest concentration of cameras, a predominantly black neighborhood.
"The spread of CCTV cameras can be used for facial recognition and could turn into an Orwellian surveilance levels." Said Matt Mahmudi, AI and Human Rights researcher for Amnesty. "You are never anonymous, whether you attend a protest, walking around, or even buying groceries - you are tracked by facial recognition cameras in NYC."