baltimore aerial view

Baltimore Considers Deploying Aerial Surveillance Planes to Fight Crime

While the program has substantial public support and funding promised by philanthropists, the police commissioner has expressed doubts about its effectiveness.

A proposal to deploy aerial surveillance planes above the city of Baltimore in a crime prevention effort is sparking debate over whether the initiative would violate residents’ rights to privacy amid a rise in violent crime. 

While Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison has been skeptical of the planes, recent polling in the city has shown that there is substantial support for a plane program. Texan philanthropists Laura and John Arnold have expressed interest in paying for three years of such surveillance if the city accepted the project, which would cost at least $6.6 million, The Baltimore Sun reported.

On Wednesday, the board of The Greater Baltimore Committee, a leading business group, joined the chorus of calls for government officials to accept the offer due to the city’s high rate of crime. 

“Given the current level of violent crime, it seems reasonable that a new technology that is being offered as an added public safety investigative tool at no cost to the city should be tried for the benefit of all citizens,” the committee wrote in a policy statement.

Harrison said there is a lack of evidence supporting the effectiveness of such a program, making it difficult for him to support the addition of planes. In 2016, the police department suspended a similar program after it was revealed that a company had secretly been conducting aerial surveillance and sharing data with police. 

But after meeting with the committee last week, he said he would not prevent a private group from testing the planes in Baltimore. 

“There are planes flying in the sky right now, so if they want to fly, they are welcome to fly,” Harrison told the Sun. “And if there’s data that somebody wants to give me, of course we’ll take data.”

He added: “I cannot in good conscience as a professional support something [with] zero evidence that tells us that it can or cannot work. It’s based on a presumption.”

Baltimore residents are more supportive of the potential project, according to poll results released earlier this week. Rev. Rev. Alvin Hathaway Sr., a popular local pastor, commissioned the poll of 500 registered voters in the city. 

While the poll has received some criticism for posing leading questions to respondents, the results show widespread support for a plane program. When asked if they generally supported a “program to conduct aerial surveillance over the city of Baltimore to reduce serious crimes like murder,” 74 percent said they did. Twenty percent said they opposed the idea. 

The numbers were similar when voters were asked about a specific scenario involving a small aircraft flying over the city, with an independent oversight group ensuring “that the system is not being abused.” Seventy-two percent said they supported the program, and 23 percent said they did not. 

Anti-violence activists have also expressed support for the measure, including Doc Cheatham, who told WBAL-TV that the city must use “every mechanism we can” to track violence.

"Yes, I have a great deal of fears to make sure this is done correctly, that our civil rights are not being violated, but this could be one mechanism we could use," Cheatham said.

Any plane program would have to comply with the city’s federal consent decree with the Justice Department and fit in with Harrison’s existing crime fighting plan, according to the Greater Baltimore Committee, which supports three years of testing the technology. 

While the committee acknowledged criticism of aerial surveillance as invasive, they wrote that the tech is not “any more” invasive than the “daily utilization of cameras that are prevalent in our society today.” In addition, the surveillance program should not be viewed as a “panacea” but part of a comprehensive effort to address crime, the board wrote. 

“The city needs every tool and resource available to break the cycle of violent crime,” the committee wrote. “This innovative approach to crime solving is a program that is  deserving of support of the Mayor, Baltimore City Council, Baltimore Police Department and the residents of the city in the fight to reduce violent crime.”

 

Featured

  • CISA Kicks Off 20th Anniversary of Cybersecurity Awareness Month

    CISA Kicks Off 20th Anniversary of Cybersecurity Awareness Month

    The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently announced the kickoff of the 20th Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Throughout October, CISA and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) will focus on ways to “Secure Our World” by educating the public on how to stay safe online. Read Now

  • Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Top Five Action Items to Elevate Your Data Security Posture Management and Secure Your Data

    October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and every year most tips for security hygiene and staying safe have not changed. We’ve seen them all – use strong passwords, deploy multi-factor authentication (MFA), be vigilant to spot phishing attacks, regularly update software and patch your systems. These are great recommended ongoing tips and are as relevant today as they’ve ever been. But times have changed and these best practices can no longer be the bare minimum. Read Now

  • Boosting Safety and Efficiency

    Boosting Safety and Efficiency

    In alignment with the state of Mississippi’s mission of “Empowering Mississippi citizens to stay connected and engaged with their government,” Salient's CompleteView VMS is being installed throughout more than 150 state boards, commissions and agencies in order to ensure safety for thousands of constituents who access state services daily. Read Now

  • Live From GSX: Post-Show Review

    Live From GSX: Post-Show Review

    This year’s Live From GSX program was a rousing success! Again, we’d like to thank our partners, and IPVideo, for working with us and letting us broadcast their solutions to the industry. You can follow our Live From GSX 2023 page to keep up with post-show developments and announcements. And if you’re interested in working with us in 2024, please don’t hesitate to ask about our Live From programs for ISC West in March or next year’s GSX. Read Now

    • Industry Events
    • GSX

Featured Cybersecurity

New Products

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.” 3

  • FEP GameChanger

    FEP GameChanger

    Paige Datacom Solutions Introduces Important and Innovative Cabling Products GameChanger Cable, a proven and patented solution that significantly exceeds the reach of traditional category cable will now have a FEP/FEP construction. 3

  • EasyGate SPT and SPD

    EasyGate SPT SPD

    Security solutions do not have to be ordinary, let alone unattractive. Having renewed their best-selling speed gates, Cominfo has once again demonstrated their Art of Security philosophy in practice — and confirmed their position as an industry-leading manufacturers of premium speed gates and turnstiles. 3