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Some Baltimore Residents Are Lobbying To Bring Back Aerial Surveillance (theoutline.com)
A local group in Baltimore argues that a plane providing real-time surveillance of the city will dial down police brutality. From a report: A piloted plane would fly over the city, capture images from 30,000 feet in the air, and use a computer program to stitch the photos together for a real-time, by-the-second portrait of what's happening on the ground. With access to all 911 dispatches, which provide information about the the time and place of a crime, local analysts could track the dot-like people and cars at the scene of a crime forward and backward in time until they arrive at a house or address. With a permit from the city of Baltimore, this surveillance system could access videos from street cameras and cross-reference their aerial data with precise, on-the-ground footage.
The analysts would then compose a PowerPoint report with visual data and a written explanation regarding the activities of all possible suspects or witnesses, and they send out five copies of that report via thumb drive: two copies go to the Baltimore police (one for an investigator, and one for evidence storage), and if the case goes to trial, two copies are given to the city prosecutor, and one copy is given to the defense. All of this could occur in just a few hours. Baltimore residents argue that a system like this is the only solution for a city grappling with high crime rates and a systemically corrupt police department.
The analysts would then compose a PowerPoint report with visual data and a written explanation regarding the activities of all possible suspects or witnesses, and they send out five copies of that report via thumb drive: two copies go to the Baltimore police (one for an investigator, and one for evidence storage), and if the case goes to trial, two copies are given to the city prosecutor, and one copy is given to the defense. All of this could occur in just a few hours. Baltimore residents argue that a system like this is the only solution for a city grappling with high crime rates and a systemically corrupt police department.
whenever its footage is "needed", it will be conveniently missing or cameras or recording servers discovered to have been 'broken' at the time of whatever incident the footage is needed from.
What a fucking mess.
Too many cops
Not enough cops
Not arresting criminals
Arresting too many minorities
Oppressive Police Presence
Not enough police presence.
It seems like the minority communities rationally understand that the police are a force for good, keep order and protect the innocent. But they just can't wrap their minds around the fact that in doing so, their friends and family members who are the perpetrators of the violence are going to be arrested and sometimes killed when they draw down on cops.
Their Tribalism will be their end.
First of all, when story starts with "A handful of Baltimoreans are willing to try anything to stop their police force from killing them", you know you're looking at the standard far left anti-police hit piece.
Second, the story has all of the far left talking points. Namely utterly ignoring who is committing the crimes, complaints of racial profiling based on the fact that clear majority of criminals in this community fit a certain race profile, accusations of "Hitler, uncle Tom" pointed toward black people who dare to disagree. And really novel and strange beliefs on part of people complaining, such as suggesting that they can't tell race from high above, so it's ok to conduct surveillance from there as opposed to street level, which is apparently racist to do.
The only thing I got from the story is that people behind the complaints are not the sharpest tools in the box, and that far leftist dogma is alive and well in their circles, and crying wolf in old ways apparently got old, they had to invent new talking points, such as the fact that camera surveillance on ground level is just racist and cannot be trusted, because [bigotry and corruption], but camera far in the air can be.
I guess they never looked into resolutions and ability to see colour of those aerial cameras they're looking for.
The problem is all their training, has taught the police to front line infantry and not police.
They are all about catching the bad guys vs making the place safe for the population.
There really should more cops outside of cars and helicopters just walking the streets, knowing the people and the culture. Not a force to fight it. Yes there are dangerous elements such a gangs, and bad guys who seem to actively want to make the area a dangerous place who need to be dealt with with force. And they should have the rights to be safe.
However the main argument against these reforms, is that police will second guess their instincts putting themselves in danger, or letting the bad guy get away. However I think we as a culture should say our freedoms is worth the risks, of bad guys getting away and some people may be hurt.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
First off I'd point out that Baltimore is a city of about 620,000. Not the biggest city, but it's more than big enough that trying to provide areal over watch to watch the watchers, so to speak, is going to be increasingly expensive. Not to mention the fact of how hard it is going to be to try and use a 'computer program to stitch the photos' of still pictures from 30K feet up in the air. Assuming that's even technologically possible and good enough to be used in a court of law. Not to mention the idea of trying to fly in bad weather or at night, and most digital cameras don't work very well at night, especially when your moving.
No, I think this entire plan was cooked up by some activist group that doesn't have a single clue about what they're talking about. But if they're really concerned about police brutality then I would suggest lobbying the BPD to use mandatory body cameras. That's a far more feasible plan than trying to do areal surveillance of the police. Of course I don't really think they'll go for that... because it turns out that those body cameras sometimes end up being used in court to justify the actions of the police against bad actors. There's been a handful of incidents where someone get's pulled over by the cops, make up a wild story after the fact about police brutality, only to have their claim completely disproves when the body camera footage is released.
Ten police officers were assassinated in cold blood last year. You want more?
The number of minorities killed by law enforcement is a rounding error compared to the minorities killed by other minorities.
Minority communities need MORE police, not less.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Meanwhile, the police have assassinated 679 people in cold blood so far this year.
The number of police killed on duty is a rounding error compared to the number of minorities killed by police.
Hyperbole and misconstruing statistics is fun!
If the local PD is corrupt, vote out the Council and City leadership, fire the Police Chiefs and get accountability back. Creating a surveillance state is the antithesis of freedom. Otherwise, just like Democracy in the Middle East, you end up throwing out that which you want most.
I'd like a citation and timeframe. The Baltimore Sun http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-baltimore-county-officers-20180521-story.html says 10 officers have died in the **history of the department**. Wikipedia says three police officers have died in Baltimore since 2014. Officer Down Memorial Site https://www.odmp.org/agency/214-baltimore-city-police-department-maryland shows three police officers have died since 2012.
The system being described fits under the category of Wide Area Persistent Surveillance. This requires far more than a single 5 gram camera carried by a simple drone. Perhaps a few hundred 5 gram cameras with onboard storage and data processing to geo-locate each image and stitch them together in both space and time - or at least store all the relevant data to allow all the data fusion to occur on the ground. Also, operating such a system at 30,000 feet is not practical as high-altitude clouds will often obscure the ground, and at over 5 miles range the optics needed to discern details would be impractical on board an aircraft smaller than an airliner. These types of persistent surveillance systems typically operate much lower.
These systems capture and record everything, and I mean everything, that moves. Nobody that lives beneath such a system will have any privacy. Keep in mind that image data from airborne sensors is often fused with ground sensors, making The Minority Report more of a documentary than a sci-fi thriller.
If a society has problems with crime and corruption, monitoring every detail with such a surveillance system will certainly be entertaining, but it's not likely to actually solve anything, and might lead to even more hilarity.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells