Meta · New York · FBI · Decrypt
US Police Fear Meta Glasses Are Watching Them Back: Report
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★ Tier-1 Source
Police forces across the U.S. are warning each other that Meta's camera-equipped glasses are being used to record inside jails and police facilities, according to a dozen previously unreported memos obtained under freedom of information and reported by the Guardian.
Key facts
- One, posted to TikTok in July 2025, showed the inside of a South Carolina detention center then under federal investigation over unsafe conditions, taking in cells, washing and eating facilities
- Similar memos have come from the Department of Homeland Security's joint counterterrorism assessment team and from fusion centers in New York, Maine, Virginia, Tennessee and San Diego
- The New York Police Department's counterterrorism bureau, which works with the FBI, circulated the first of them in January, describing Ray-Ban Meta glasses as a "security and counterintelligence
- The documents were obtained by Property of the People, a transparency non-profit whose executive director, Ryan Shapiro, sees the objection as self-serving
Summary
An NYPD counterterrorism memo told officers to inspect all eyewear permitted into inmate cells. Maine's fusion center warned that facial recognition in smart glasses could be used to dox officers. ICE has barred its own staff from wearing the glasses in federal workspaces. The New York Police Department's counterterrorism bureau, which works with the FBI, circulated the first of them in January, describing Ray-Ban Meta glasses as a "security and counterintelligence" threat and telling officers to inspect all eyewear allowed into inmate cells.