By: Samantha Cirillo
With cameras located at street corners, ATMs and even traffic lights, Americans may have a hard time avoiding being recorded on a daily basis. Given the current use of surveillance technology, does the City of Baltimore’s new system which uses airborne cameras to provide a live stream of a 32-mile radius surrounding the city go a step too far?1
Police Commissioner, Kevin Davis, has used the program created by Persistent Surveillance Systems, to record over 300 hours of footage without informing city officials or the citizens of Baltimore.2 Unsurprisingly, civil liberties advocates are outraged by the invasion of privacy without as much as a public hearing.3 Supporters of the program, however, argue that any measures that may effectively reduce the crime rates in a crime stricken community are well worth the invasion.4
The surveillance program works by attaching industrial imaging cameras to the bottom of a plane flown approximately 8,000 feet above the City of Baltimore.5 The images are then transmitted to a computer program that allows analysts to use the continuous stream to move forward and backward through the recorded events.6 The program’s creator, Ross McNutt, refers to the technology as “Google Earth with TiVo Capability”.7
Each morning, the Persistent Surveillance Team receives the previous day’s crime report and working with a former city police officer, the analysts track down the location of the crimes.8 They further document and track every car or individual entering or leaving the crime scene.9 Although the program does not yet have the resolution to detect an individual’s face, analysts can cross reference information from the program with street based surveillance footage.10 Therefore, the tracking capability allows police officers to locate suspects long after the crime has been committed.
The courts have been unable to keep up with the rapid advances made in surveillance technology. With at least five open cases using evidence gathered from McNutt’s program, the court will soon have to face the question of whether this evidence should be admissible in court.11
1 Surveillance Program Raises Questions About Tech, Privacy, N.Y. T???? (Aug. 26, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/08/26/us/ap-us-baltimore-police-surveillance-.html.
2 Kevin Rector, Commissioner Davis avoids answering questions on secret surveillance program, T?? B???????? S?? (Sept. 8, 2016), http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-davis-on-surveillance-20160906-story.html.1 Surveillance Program Raises Questions About Tech, Privacy, N.Y. T???? (Aug. 26, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/08/26/us/ap-us-baltimore-police-surveillance-.html.
3 Monte Reel, Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above, B???????? B??????????? (Aug. 23, 2016), https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-baltimore-secret-surveillance/.
4 Surveillance Program Raises Questions About Tech, Privacy, N.Y. T???? (Aug. 26, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/08/26/us/ap-us-baltimore-police-surveillance-.html.
5 Id.
6 Monte Reel, supra note 3.
7 Id.
8 Id.
9 Id.
10 Id.
11 Surveillance Program Raises Questions About Tech, Privacy, N.Y. T???? (Aug. 26, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/08/26/us/ap-us-baltimore-police-surveillance-.html.