Baltimore Police Hold Public Forum To Discuss Surveillance Plane Pilot Program
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- In just a few weeks, surveillance planes will fly over Baltimore City, only this time, it won't be a secret like it was three years ago.
The Baltimore Police Department held its first of three public meetings Wednesday to discuss the surveillance planes that they are calling an aerial investigation research pilot program.
Residents who attended the meeting said they were skeptical of the surveillance planes.
"When I heard it was going to be reintroduced, I had some concerns," Matthew Emrich, a Baltimore resident, said.
Back in 2016, planes first flew over the city in secret. Once the public found out, the program was put on hold.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said Wednesday, this time, things are different.
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"This is a tool that we could potentially have in our toolbox, and we do not know yet," he said. "That's why it's in a pilot phase to ascertain its efficiency and validity."
The same company, Persistent Surveillance Systems, will operate the system.
The ACLU said the entire program is unconstitutional.
"We need to understand what this technology is," David Rocah, of ACLU of Maryland, said. "It's a video record of everywhere that everybody in Baltimore goes every time they walk outside."
Police officers will not have direct access to the video, but for many who attended Wednesday's meeting, they're satisfied.
"There's still some reason to keep an eye on this program, but I don't feel the concerns that I did when I came in," Emrich said.
Harrison said this pilot program should be up and running by the end of April, but also added that a group of independent researchers and auditors will be the ones to judge whether the program will be put into permanent in Baltimore.
