Police State: Baltimore police confirms aerial surveillance of city residents…
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/24/baltimore-police-aerial-surveillance-cameras
Baltimore police on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time that city residents had been subject to aerial surveillance, after a Bloomberg Businessweek story revealed that airborne cameras had snapped continuous photos in cooperation with the police since January.
Police spokesman TJ Smith insisted that the privately funded agreement between Persistent Surveillance Systems and city police “was not a secret surveillance program”. Before Wednesday, not even the mayor, city council, and board of estimates had been told about the program.
“There was no conspiracy not to disclose it,” Smith said.
Many officials and activists thought otherwise. The office of the public defender issued a statement saying that the “secrecy of the program has precluded any oversight of the technology’s use” and warned of “abuses that are ripe from its use”.
American Civil Liberties Union senior policy analyst Jay Stanley said it was “stunning that American police forces feel that they can use deeply radical and controversial surveillance systems” in a blogpost.
Persistent Surveillance Systems began working in Baltimore in January, as first reported by Bloomberg Businessweek. The Ohio-based company provides data gleaned from its aerial surveillance to police as they investigate crimes in the city.
It works, according to founder Ross McNutt, like “Google Earth with Tivo”: megapixel cameras on a Cessna aircraft continuously photograph the city.
The wide-area imagery used by the program allows the the department to film 32 square miles of the city in a fashion that allows investigators to move back and forth in time, following suspects. Ross McNutt, the founder of Persistent Surveillance, which owns and operates the technology, said that his company had provided the police with 102 “investigation briefs” but not all of those led to arrest.
The program, according to Smith, was in use for 100 hours between January and February and another 200 hours over the summer. The small plane will continue to surveil the city for a few more weeks, when the department will begin to evaluate whether to enter into a permanent agreement.
“This effectively is a mobile CitiWatch camera,” Smith said, referring to the system of nearly 700 manually operated surveillance cameras spread throughout the city. “But we see a larger area than what we see with the CitiWatch camera, but what we lose is the clarity ... This is so far in the sky where the person on the ground becomes unidentifiable at this point.
“We have the near real-time ability to follow up on a situation after a 911 call is made,” said Smith.
He provided the example of a February case in which an elderly brother and sister were shot in the area of Walbrook Junction.
“The information that we gleaned from that data assisted our investigators in identifying that suspect,” he said.
McNutt says that two supreme court cases in the 1980s legally justify the program.
The company says the imagery data, which is stored for 45 days unless it is part of investigation, can only be accessed by the company’s analysts, who in turn provide information to “detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys and the courts”.
Government surveillance expert Jake Laperruque said the surveillance currently practiced by Baltimore police is in unclear legal standing.
“It’s definitely something that’s currently being litigated in a number of areas,” said Laperruque, a privacy fellow at the Constitution Project thinktank. “There’s a strong case to be made, based on what the supreme court has said in the past, that there is a constitutional right to be free from pervasive location tracking without court authorization.”
He added that, absent answers from the Baltimore police about when and how the surveillance technology is used, there “definitely is potential for serious abuse”.
“What’s to say that the Baltimore police couldn’t zoom in on a protest, on a religious ceremony, on an abortion clinic, or just to track people in an arbitrary or improper manner?,” he asked.
This is not the first time that McNutt’s company has contracted with domestic law enforcement, or even the first time the company has worked with Baltimore. McNutt told the Baltimore Sun last year that his company has previously operated in the city for a brief period in 2008. McNutt’s company also surveilled Compton, California, for the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department and Dayton, Ohio, in previous trial programs.
Like the Baltimore program, the trial in Compton was launched with no disclosure by authorities.
Stanley, of the ACLU, nodded to all this history and his organization’s own requests for more information on these programs.
“Despite all the public questioning and statements of concern by us and others, and our freedom-of-information requests, and the extensive press coverage the FBI’s Baltimore flights received, the Baltimore police did not see fit to ask the public’s permission to use this startling new technology on the city’s population,” he said.
Comments
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High-tech "stop & frisk."
Devils in blue uniforms. -
yup, spotted a few on my walk last night..
been a few shootings and ? been working with the police heavy..? 's kinda hot around there, and they waiting for something to pop off especially with a notorious og coming home.... -
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Have you SEEN Baltimore?
They need to move the national guard to that ? -
Black_Thunder wrote: »Have you SEEN Baltimore?
They need to move the national guard to that ?
baltimore is no worse than any urban area in any other city....
show me a city with no crime bruh.....in fact what city u from homie? -
Black_Thunder wrote: »Have you SEEN Baltimore?
They need to move the national guard to that ?
baltimore is no worse than any urban area in any other city....
show me a city with no crime bruh.....in fact what city u from homie?
When you got a tv show about copious amounts of crime based off pof and filmed on location in your city for SEASONS, its a DUMP
Aint nothing like the wire going on in Princeton or Flushing Meadows you idiot. -
you get your info from TV shows?
okay... -
and LOL at "nothing like the wire going on in Princeton or Flushing Meadows "
either you missed the entire "it's all connected" theme of the show, or you just are completely ignorant to what REALLY goes on in Princeton and Flushing Meadows...
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Black_Thunder wrote: »Black_Thunder wrote: »Have you SEEN Baltimore?
They need to move the national guard to that ?
baltimore is no worse than any urban area in any other city....
show me a city with no crime bruh.....in fact what city u from homie?
When you got a tv show about copious amounts of crime based off pof and filmed on location in your city for SEASONS, its a DUMP
Aint nothing like the wire going on in Princeton or Flushing Meadows you idiot.
? u know u live in Ewing. u don't live in Princeton. them cops wouldn't allow ya ass nowhere near Nassau street.
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you get your info from TV shows?
okay...
Tv shows based on TRUE events, yes
Everybody knows Baltimore is a cesspool and has been one for quite some time, dont make me pull up stats boy. -
yup, spotted a few on my walk last night..
been a few shootings and ? been working with the police heavy..? 's kinda hot around there, and they waiting for something to pop off especially with a notorious og coming home....
you cant do stuff like this without elaborating...come now brother
regale a country bama like myself with tales of northern thuggery.
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yup, spotted a few on my walk last night..
been a few shootings and ? been working with the police heavy..? 's kinda hot around there, and they waiting for something to pop off especially with a notorious og coming home....
They watching you cook-out in your alley ? . Better stop asking strangers if they want something eat. They gonna think you hustling out the back of your house. -
pull them up, and compare them to any and every other major city in america.....
there's the same thing in NY, DC, Philly, Detroit, LA, Miami, Dallas, New Orleans, Boston, Chicago
you can literally go anywhere in america and find the same ? you find in Baltimore...and in some places on a higher scale......
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whatevathehell wrote: »yup, spotted a few on my walk last night..
been a few shootings and ? been working with the police heavy..? 's kinda hot around there, and they waiting for something to pop off especially with a notorious og coming home....
you cant do stuff like this without elaborating...come now brother
regale a country bama like myself with tales of northern thuggery.
it's just a dude who is coming home who used to run the area heavy, and he wants his spot back....i doubt there will be much resistance... it's never been that crazy around here for ? to start buckign outta nowhere... but of course the police are itching and waiting for something to pop off -
Black_Samson wrote: »Nonissue.
No different than a chopper cop doing rounds.
What? Definitely didn't expect this from you. This is pretty much a surveillance drone flying above a major american city. This is an issue. -
yup, spotted a few on my walk last night..
been a few shootings and ? been working with the police heavy..? 's kinda hot around there, and they waiting for something to pop off especially with a notorious og coming home....
Can't be the real Avon. He died. -
whatevathehell wrote: »yup, spotted a few on my walk last night..
been a few shootings and ? been working with the police heavy..? 's kinda hot around there, and they waiting for something to pop off especially with a notorious og coming home....
you cant do stuff like this without elaborating...come now brother
regale a country bama like myself with tales of northern thuggery.
it's just a dude who is coming home who used to run the area heavy, and he wants his spot back....i doubt there will be much resistance... it's never been that crazy around here for ? to start buckign outta nowhere... but of course the police are itching and waiting for something to pop off
? like always causes problems and is comical to me.
2nd bold damn for real!!! ? got it like that. More power to him then. -
pull them up, and compare them to any and every other major city in america.....
there's the same thing in NY, DC, Philly, Detroit, LA, Miami, Dallas, New Orleans, Boston, Chicago
you can literally go anywhere in america and find the same ? you find in Baltimore...and in some places on a higher scale......
Hmm, A+ in crime prevention
No reports of crazy ass ? rooting and ? ? up
There appears to be QUITE the discrepancy in crime AND education AND employment , doesn't there boy? -
whatevathehell wrote: »yup, spotted a few on my walk last night..
been a few shootings and ? been working with the police heavy..? 's kinda hot around there, and they waiting for something to pop off especially with a notorious og coming home....
you cant do stuff like this without elaborating...come now brother
regale a country bama like myself with tales of northern thuggery.
it's just a dude who is coming home who used to run the area heavy, and he wants his spot back....i doubt there will be much resistance... it's never been that crazy around here for ? to start buckign outta nowhere... but of course the police are itching and waiting for something to pop off
? like always causes problems and is comical to me.
2nd bold damn for real!!! ? got it like that. More power to him then.
not really, it's just that the dudes out there right now aint really hitters like that...
they just outside cuz nobody else is...there's a couple maybe 2 or 3 that might possibly prove a problem, and they hit one of them early as ? .....the rest of them are like ? it,...yall win......
i'm sure as soon as he puts his peoples back out there, ? just gonna cop from them and keep it moving....
it's not like these are brand new dudes that got ran out or they never dealt with before.....it's just very few people where i live who really worried about that super thugging ? ....? would much rather not beef over eveything..it may not be like that everywhere....but it's fairly chill around our way.....
these ? be shooting videos and having cookouts....they ain't tryna beef like that forreal -
Black_Thunder wrote: »pull them up, and compare them to any and every other major city in america.....
there's the same thing in NY, DC, Philly, Detroit, LA, Miami, Dallas, New Orleans, Boston, Chicago
you can literally go anywhere in america and find the same ? you find in Baltimore...and in some places on a higher scale......
Hmm, A+ in crime prevention
No reports of crazy ass ? rooting and ? ? up
all crime ain't ? bruh.....
there's tons of white collar crime going on in princeton that leads to the violent crimes in trenton....
not to mention the people who profit the most from crimes all live out in princeton....like i said it's all connected..... -
Black_Thunder wrote: »pull them up, and compare them to any and every other major city in america.....
there's the same thing in NY, DC, Philly, Detroit, LA, Miami, Dallas, New Orleans, Boston, Chicago
you can literally go anywhere in america and find the same ? you find in Baltimore...and in some places on a higher scale......
Hmm, A+ in crime prevention
No reports of crazy ass ? rooting and ? ? up
all crime ain't ? bruh.....
there's tons of white collar crime going on in princeton that leads to the violent crimes in trenton....
not to mention the people who profit the most from crimes all live out in princeton....like i said it's all connected.....
0 murders vs 211
Yeah theyre very connected, the same way Earth and the Sun are connected
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whatevathehell wrote: »yup, spotted a few on my walk last night..
been a few shootings and ? been working with the police heavy..? 's kinda hot around there, and they waiting for something to pop off especially with a notorious og coming home....
you cant do stuff like this without elaborating...come now brother
regale a country bama like myself with tales of northern thuggery.
it's just a dude who is coming home who used to run the area heavy, and he wants his spot back....i doubt there will be much resistance... it's never been that crazy around here for ? to start buckign outta nowhere... but of course the police are itching and waiting for something to pop off
? like always causes problems and is comical to me.
2nd bold damn for real!!! ? got it like that. More power to him then.
not really, it's just that the dudes out there right now aint really hitters like that...
they just outside cuz nobody else is...there's a couple maybe 2 or 3 that might possibly prove a problem, and they hit one of them early as ? .....the rest of them are like ? it,...yall win......
i'm sure as soon as he puts his peoples back out there, ? just gonna cop from them and keep it moving....
it's not like these are brand new dudes that got ran out or they never dealt with before.....it's just very few people where i live who really worried about that super thugging ? ....? would much rather not beef over eveything..it may not be like that everywhere....but it's fairly chill around our way.....
these ? be shooting videos and having cookouts....they ain't tryna beef like that forreal
Explains it all. I get it now.
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The user and all related content has been deleted.
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this is and isn't a big deal. this company an alternative to drones. most pd's are going with drones because they can get better pictures and video. its easy to train the officers to use but drones are actually more expensive than this service. this service cant tell the cops what u are wearing but it can follow u. they can see where a person went after they robbed 7-11. the cops still would need some type of evidence to show that got the right person cuz this service can do a positive id.
cops are also less likely to use this service because the company owns the footage. the police department wants access to the footage themselves before someone else can decide what to do with it. in the end Baltimore will go with drones.
all y'all ? better look up. I been telling y'all for weeks that drone sales are skyrocketing. they buying better and better ? every single day. be safe my ?
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