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, for the most part without any formal oversight or local regulation.

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.

The result is “Neighborhoods Watched,” a five-part series on the recent expansion of the city’s surveillance system. In this special podcast episode, reporters Michael Isaac Stein and Caroline Sinders talk to Lens producerr Carolyne Heldman about their work on the project.