2015 article about Project Nola, an independent private company which got its start before NOPD and Palantir's partnership expired in 2018.

In recent years, wealthier residents have developed privatized systems to make New Orleans more liveable. For instance, one entrepreneur recently created an app to let people instantly summon up a local police force. Project NOLA follows suit: One wealthy resident created a system that, in many ways, is more efficient than anything the city government has created.

Earlier this year, New Orleans police launched its own program, SafeCam, to collect surveillance video. But unlike Project NOLA, the SafeCam initiative is merely a database of the locations of 2,500 registered cameras around the city. The footage is recorded by individuals or businesses and stored locally. According to Gamble, it’s a “growing” program and used by detectives so they “know who to contact if we need the footage.” “The way we see it, there is no competition between SafeCam NOLA and Project NOLA,” Gamble says.

Gamble says the New Orleans Police Department tried to get Lagarde to hand over his database of registered cameras, but Lagarde refused, citing privacy concerns. “Our first priority is actually not crime abatement,” Lagarde says. “It’s to protect the privacy of those who participate by giving us access to their camera.” That access, Lagarde says, costs users $10 per month, or $96 per year. He has registered Project NOLA as a nonprofit organization, and says the program earns less than $100,000 in revenue per year.