A plan to shoot the city from the sky with a surveillance camera and use it for police investigation was really executed

Although surveillance cameras used for crime prevention purposes are installed all over the world, it is also true that disputes over the installation of surveillance cameras from privacy point of view are raised. A plan to mount such a surveillance camera on an airplane and to monitor from the sky was running in the United States.

Secret Cameras Record Baltimore's Every Move From Above
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-baltimore-secret-surveillance/

At Baltimore in Maryland, USA, the conflict between police and black people continues. The confrontation was triggered by the suspects of the Black died during police guardsIncidentis. The case was that Mr. Freddie Gray, who was carried on suspicion of possessing a firearm illegally, died during the guard, and Caesar Goodson, who was driving an escort vehicle, did not oblige the safety obligation He was arrested as.

The trial of that goods police investigation was carried out, and at the trial, the prosecution's appeal was dismissed and he was found innocent, and a big opposition came out from the local residents. Among the local residents, "There is a witness who saw until Mr. Goodson arrested the suspect, then what has happened later is not recorded in the record.With Baltimore adopts a monitoring system from the sky I did not submit evidence, but I doubt whether the surveillance camera is really being used for justice. "

The Baltimore police have been testing the monitoring system from the air used in Iraq by the US military since January 2016, but publicly explained the details on what kind of purpose is being filmed for what purpose Is not ...


Offering a surveillance system from the air to police isPersistent Surveillance Systems (PSS)It is a company called. PSS has provided track record in military and police investigations, including providing a surveillance system to the US Navy in the past, being used in Fallujah in Iraq, being employed in Mexico where drug cartels and police fighting continues.

What PSS is introducing in Baltimore is to shoot the state of the town with Cessna aircraft carrying 4 to 6 surveillance cameras that fly. The installed camera shoots every 7.7 square meters and is sending images to the analyst in real time. Although photographed pictures are not high image quality, they can be confirmed if the level is about which street one car is driving, but when it comes to human level size, it is male because there is only one dot It seems that it is difficult to distinguish features such as female.


Sometimes I cooperated with the investigation in real time, for example, I escaped with a hit-and-run event, discovered the way of the car that I lost sightseeing, and made a big contribution to the arrest of the criminal. According to Mr. Terence Rice who works for PSS, it is rare for the user to check the images taken at a time while on duty and to keep their eyes off the screen. It seems that the task of chasing targets for each frame is similar to the feeling of playing games.

Mr. Ross McNutt who established PSS claims that "PSS surveillance cameras do not have the ability to recognize people's faces due to their low resolution, and consider privacy," employees who work at the company We are not observing people's behavior with surveillance cameras but we will monitor them only when instructed by the police. When enlarging the image under the direction of the police, it is executed only when there are targets in public land and public roads, not private ownership, and it is said that it is not infringement of privacy.


McNutt said, "If the police explain exactly what our surveillance system is doing, I think that the residents will be satisfied with the introduction.What can we do with our camera and what we can not do? If you explain this, you should eliminate anxiety about people worried about surveillance cameras. " However, the Baltimore police have not defeated the attitude that it will not explain the details about surveillance cameras from the sky, and the distrust of the local police seems to be increasingly distrustful to the police.