Why should we trust the BPD with aerial surveillance technology?

Aprivate company is trying to surveil the city, claiming it will help reduce crime and identify police misconduct. As The Sun reported last week, Persistent Surveillance Systems seeks to bring back its Cessna airplane to conduct aerial surveillance over roughly a third of the city. Baltimore’s serious concerns about violent crime and police misconduct are justified. However, providing a police force that has yet to earn back our trust with unfettered access to aerial surveillance is not the answer. Without significant safeguards and oversight, the privacy implications and constitutional concerns are simply too great.

Last year, without disclosing to the public or elected officials, Persistent began its aerial surveillance of Baltimore with private funding funneled through a foundation created on behalf of the Baltimore Police Department. The BPD never reported this contract to the Board of Estimates, which is charged with overseeing purchases made by city agencies. Persistent was literally trying to fly under the radar of the citizens of Baltimore, an inauspicious start for a company that claims transparency as a guiding principle. Once the program came to light, the public outcry was deafening.

Of all times, now is the worst moment to entrust the city’s police department with new technology that is so vast in scope and raises clear privacy implications without having clear standards and mechanisms surrounding its use firmly in place.