ACLU Sues Baltimore Police Department Over Aerial Surveillance Program:
On the first day of April, Baltimore officials approved a deal between the Baltimore Police Department [(BPD)] and Ohio-based company Persistent Surveillance Systems to use drones equipped with high-resolution cameras in order to spy on the city's residents through around-the-clock surveillance despite formal objections filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Defense Fund.
[...] On Thursday, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the BPD seeking to block the program, saying that it will put everyone in the city "under constant aerial surveillance," WBALTV 11 reports.
"It is equivalent to having a police officer follow us, each of us, outside all the time in case we might commit a crime," said David Rocah, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland. "If that happened in real life, everyone would clearly understand the privacy and First Amendment implications, and it would never be tolerated."
[...] The spy planes can cover at least 90% of Baltimore's land area at any given moment. The ACLU fears that the technology can be combined with the BPD's ground cameras and license plate readers and that all of that data can be tied together and used to provide detailed information as to the identities and activities of the city's citizens.
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Tuesday April 14 2020, @09:27PM
The Baltimore Police Dept. seems to be a huge fan of the movie - Enemy of the State ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_of_the_State_(film) [wikipedia.org] ). 1984 is here already !!! Sigh !
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @09:30PM
Coverage 90pc is nice margin to not be looking when the brute squad is busy clearing a nest one sunday.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @09:47PM (2 children)
Baltimore is a crap hole of murder.
I don't think the ACLU is helping Baltimorons by taking away visibility of crime from the police.
I don't think the ACLU cares.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @02:41AM (1 child)
Safety - whether real or imagined - is less important than stopping mass surveillance, which threatens democracy and freedom. [gnu.org] This pandemic is being used as an excuse to increase mass surveillance, which will almost certainly not go away even when the pandemic is over.
The US is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, and free and brave people don't sacrifice liberties for safety. The government is a far larger threat than any number of criminals. Though, that's a bit redundant, since the government is filled with criminals.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @04:46AM
Absolutely.
Depends or not if you include stupid in the free and brave bit. Unfortunately, some can't tell the difference - I point you to the idiots that are ignoring the covid safe distancing laws and holding parties and then going out to spread their joys through more contact, because their liberty is more important than some "law" to promote safety.
The problem with broad taglines like "liberty over safety" just allows the dumb and selfish to do what they want and the opponents to use that as ammunition to shoot down your good ideology. Gotta be specific instead, i.e. "Mass surv. over safety", etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @09:48PM
"It is equivalent to having a police officer follow us, each of us, outside all the time "
Nothing wrong with that. I choose to be followed by the hot little brunette who gave me a traffic ticket last summer.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday April 14 2020, @10:00PM (1 child)
Yeah, right.
People will grow tolerant of all kinds of things that are the new normal.
Copyright extension to absurdity.
The DMCA.
The PATRIOT act.
TSA groping and stealing iPads.
Social Distancing.
In Russia: (read this long ago...)
Always having something in short supply, this week razor blades, next week toilet paper. Having to go to a place where you can get the item in short supply. Stand in line for hours to get your ration of the item currently in short supply. The endless waiting for something that was easy to get last week/month wears people down. Drains their will. Hey, what if we did that in America!
Is there a chemotherapy treatment for excessively low blood alcohol level?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeVilla on Friday April 17 2020, @06:45PM
Well you at least have to give the ACLU credit for trying to improve things instead of shrugging and riding the slope down like you seem to suggest.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:00AM
Black-on-black crime in the dark foils BPD technology, so less Afro-Americans end up in prison.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @04:35AM
The usual standard for this thing is the idea that in public, there is no expectation of privacy.
Walking around? Caught on camera from every storefront, every police cruiser, every passing smartphone? You have no cause to go to court because you were in public.
I could easily see the BPD saying that all they're doing is putting cameras where they want them, rather than every streetlamp, thereby beings less intrusive and more selective.
In the present era, where we think of the terrorists, paedophiles and pirates all the time, I can see them getting away with this argument - and I'm sure that the ACLU's lawyers know this.
The open question then is: if the ACLU knows this and anticipates a possible loss, why are they fighting it, to enshrine it in case law?
I suspect that they may want to motivate a change in that doctrine, precisely by losing this case and screaming about it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @01:35PM
Sounds about right.