Behind The Lens episode 156: Surveillance creep

The city finds yet another use for its expanded surveillance network. A dispute between OPSB and the New Orleans City Council over grants. And a wrap of the second week of the David Wade Correctional Center civil rights trial.

On this week’s episode, the New Orleans Fire Fighters Association and other labor advocates are raising concerns after the city government was found to have used its network of criminal surveillance cameras to support actions against city employees. 

NOLA Public School district officials asked Orleans Parish School Board to formally request that the New Orleans City Council rescind a recent resolution inserting the city administration into an education grant process — one that historically went directly to the district.

And the civil rights trial against David Wade Correctional Center is in its second week. We will get an update.

Our guests this week are reporters Marta Jewson, Nick Chrastil and Michael Isaac Stein and editor Charles Maldonado.

Carolyne Heldman

Carolyne Heldman Rovira has been in media for 35 years, and is currently the podcast host and producer for Behind The Lens. Heldman served as executive director at Aspen Public Radio, an NPR affiliate, where she launched four weekly news, public affairs, and cultural affairs programs. She has been a guest lecturer at Tulane University, is a frequent guest and moderator for the Aspen Institute, Rocky Mountain Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute.