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Surveillance Plane Company Urged City Police to Notify the Public

BALTIMORE, Md. (WJZ)-- The company operating a surveillance plane over Baltimore urged city police to see how the public would feel about the program before it went into effect.

That's according to emails obtained by WJZ through a public records request.

The program has been at the center of controversy after police failed to tell residents that the plane has been flying over Baltimore taking hundreds of hours of video.

Related: Baltimore City Police Surveillance Plane Sparks Outrage

The emails sent by the Persistent Surveillance Systems' president, Ross T. McNutt, urged the police department to gauge how the program would be accepted and see what concerns people in Baltimore might have.

The community acceptance would be a significant part of the evaluation. As part of this effort we would fully support community outreach and briefings and fully explain the system and what it does and the privacy policies we will be operating under.

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