Friday, December 20, 2019
Tyler Waldman, WBAL NewsRadio 1090 and FM 101.5
Baltimore police have reached an agreement for a second trial of the controversial surveillance plane.
Police Commissioner Michael Harrison, who has in the past said he had misgivings about the unproven technology, announced Friday the plane will take off in May for a period of 120 to 180 days, with specific guidelines in place to ease residents' privacy worries.
"We will be the first American city to use this technology to attempt to solve and prevent violent crime," Harrison said.
Harrison said there will be a series of public meetings to gather feedback on the plan.
"It is important that we are transparent on how the program will and will not be used going forward," Harrison said.
The department reached a memorandum of understanding with Persistent Surveillance Systems, the company that will operate the flights with funding from Texas philanthropists. Should the flights continue past the trial period, the department will seek philanthropic support to keep the plane or planes in the air.
"It could represent yet another tool in the toolbox to solve and deter violent crimes in our city," Harrison said.
2019 is Baltimore City's fifth-straight year with more than 300 homicides.
The pilot program will be limited to looking at past events, not live surveillance. Officers will not be able to access the video feeds. Instead, they will get evidence packages from PSS. Video will only be used to investigate the most serious offenses, like homicides, armed robberies and carjackings. The department will seek third-party auditing to ensure compliance and independent research to determine the plan's effectiveness.
"We want to do this the right way and we want to make sure there are policies and procedures," Harrison said.
Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young said in a statement he directed Harrison to consult with the U.S. Department of Justice prior to moving forward on the plane.
"Reducing crime, most importantly violent crime, remains a top priority of mine," Young said.
The plane became an issue in the 2020 mayoral campaign, with candidates including Thiru Vignarajah, T.J. Smith and former Mayor Sheila Dixon urging the plane's adoption.
“I can’t object to Jack finally doing what we’ve been supporting for a year," Vignarajah said in a statement. "I can object that it’s taken a year; I can object that it’s going to take 6 more months to get the program in the air; I can object that hundreds have been killed during this period of indecision; and I can object that this change of heart appears driven by polling and politics in anticipation of an election, rather than by what’s best to protect the people of Baltimore.”
Gov. Larry Hogan has urged the city to use the plane. The governor recently directed Maryland State Police helicopter crews to conduct tactical flights over the city.
"The administration will continue to work with city leaders to use every tool and resource at our disposal to bring violent criminals to justice," spokeswoman Shareese Churchill said in a statement.
The plane was first used in Baltimore in 2016. However, the program was halted after its existence became public knowledge.
Smith, a former police spokesman, said in a statement Friday he lauded the decision but said the city needs "definitive leadership from City Hall."
"There have been 85 murders in the past three months and this year alone, there have been over 1,000 robberies and carjackings," Smith said. "This decision feels like that fierce urgency of now that we all expect from leadership. It should’ve existed back in October, but the decision paralysis in City Hall has crippled us from thinking outside of the box and using technology that could help Baltimore become a safer city. "
City Council President Brandon M. Scott, another candidate for mayor, cited recent testimony by police indicating that the 2016 flights yielded no usable evidence.
"A spy plane in the sky might make some of us feel safer, but it is not a proven crime-fighting tool. We know this," Scott said in a statement. "Baltimore is the only city that's ever used the spy plane. That's because every other city that's been approached with the technology has said no."
In a joint statement, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and the Coalition for Justice, Safety & Jobs criticized the move, arguing it puts minority communities at risk and said that no matter what promises police make, mission creep is inevitable.
"Everyone in Baltimore is concerned about violent crime, but the desire to address that concern cannot be sufficient to ignore the other issues that this surveillance plan raises," they said. "Any decision to take such a drastic step, with such long-term impacts, should be made by an elected body that is accountable to the people who elect them, not by the Police Commissioner, or by private funders hoping to use Baltimore as a test site.”