In January, the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism unit sent out a memo warning police officers about a new potential “security and counterintelligence” threat: Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The memo directed officers to “conduct thorough inspections of all eyewear permitted within inmate cells” and cautioned that people who have been arrested could use these glasses, equipped with small cameras and microphones, to record inside police facilities. The memo cited two examples of such videos posted on social media.
The NYPD memo is one of a dozen, previously unreported and reviewed by the Guardian, that showed law enforcement agencies across the US are increasingly concerned about the potential for smart glasses to be used against them. Officers from Maine to California worry the technology will be used either to secretly record officers and facilities or to aid in the execution of crimes and acts of terrorism. One of the videos, taken with smart glasses and posted to TikTok in July 2025, offered a rare peek into a South Carolina detention center that had been the subject of a federal investigation over unsafe conditions.
Detention facilities in the US typically confiscate any and all devices that would be capable of recording video footage. Some Meta smart glasses have gone unnoticed, though. The glasses are discreet and can pass as a regular pair of Ray-Bans or Oakleys.
Their main differentiator is a small blinking light in the corner of the frame that is activated when the glasses are recording. The covertly recorded videos prompted the NYPD’s intelligence and counterterrorism bureau, a specialized unit that works with the FBI to monitor and prevent terrorist threats, to send out the January memo to other police departments. The glasses “may appear as ordinary prescription eyewear”, the memo read.
US police and federal agents are not alone in their fear. Concern among the public and privacy experts over Meta’s smart glasses, widely dubbed “pervert glasses”, is growing. The technology enables its wearers to record people without their consent and has already been used to harass people.
Documents obtained by Property of the People, a non-profit that works to increase government transparency, show law enforcement have grown as equally worried as everyday people about being filmed without their knowledge. Ryan Shapiro, the executive director of Property of the People, said the documents show that law enforcement wants the exclusive right to use surveillance technology and cameras to monitor the public without those cameras being turned back on them. It’s impunity.” “The potential for smart glasses to be used by residents and the general public to conduct surveillance and other nefarious activities has introduced additional risks and concerns in Department of Corrections and law enforcement facilities,” read a memo distributed in June 2026 by Maine’s fusion center.
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