Surveillance planes spotted in the sky for days after West Baltimore rioting

[charrob]

Surveillance planes spotted in the sky for days after West Baltimore rioting:
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/surveillance-planes-spotted-in-the-sky-for-days-after-west-baltimore-rioting/2015/05/05/c57c53b6-f352-11e4-84a6-6d7c67c50db0_story.html)



As Benjamin Shayne settled into his back yard to listen to the Orioles game on the radio Saturday night, he noticed a small plane looping low and tight over West Baltimore — almost exactly above where rioting had erupted several days earlier, in the aftermath of the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, in police custody.

The plane appeared to be a small Cessna, but little else was clear. The sun had already set, making traditional visual surveillance difficult. So, perplexed, Shayne tweeted: “Anyone know who has been flying the light plane in circles above the city for the last few nights?”

That was 9:14 p.m. Seven minutes later came a startling reply. One of Shayne’s nearly 600 followers tweeted back a screen shot of the Cessna 182T’s exact flight path and also the registered owner of the plane: NG Research, based in Bristow, Va.

“The Internet,” Shayne, 39, told his wife, “is an amazing thing.”

What Shayne’s online rumination helped unveil was a previously secret, multi-day campaign of overhead surveillance by city and federal authorities during a period of historic political protest and unrest.


Continued at link...

[Zippyjuan]

The exact reach of the infrared technology is not clear. Civil libertarians have long warned that the ability to track the movements of individuals — even if their names are not initially known — can allow authorities to identify people, intruding on personal privacy and chilling the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of association.

Infrared is a lower resolution source. Especially from flying altitude, it would be hard to identify anybody using it. Plan was said to have been flying at 3,600 feet. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/surveillance-planes-spotted-in-the-sky-for-days-after-west-baltimore-rioting/2015/05/05/c57c53b6-f352-11e4-84a6-6d7c67c50db0_story.html

They can tell that there are individuals but could not determine the identity of one from another. They could easily track say a person who had broken into a house and was running away but they could not say exactly who that person was.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/new-surveillance-technology-can-track-everyone-in-an-area-for-several-hours-at-a-time/2014/02/05/82f1556e-876f-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html


DAYTON, Ohio — Shooter and victim were just a pair of pixels, dark specks on a gray streetscape. Hair color, bullet wounds, even the weapon were not visible in the series of pictures taken from an airplane flying two miles above.

But what the images revealed — to a degree impossible just a few years ago — was location, mapped over time. Second by second, they showed a gang assembling, blocking off access points, sending the shooter to meet his target and taking flight after the body hit the pavement. When the report reached police, it included a picture of the blue stucco building into which the killer ultimately retreated, at last beyond the view of the powerful camera overhead.

“I’ve witnessed 34 of these,” said Ross McNutt, the genial president of Persistent Surveillance Systems, which collected the images of the killing in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, from a specially outfitted Cessna. “It’s like opening up a murder mystery in the middle, and you need to figure out what happened before and after.”

As Americans have grown increasingly comfortable with traditional surveillance cameras, a new, far more powerful generation is being quietly deployed that can track every vehicle and person across an area the size of a small city, for several hours at a time. Although these cameras can’t read license plates or see faces, they provide such a wealth of data that police, businesses and even private individuals can use them to help identify people and track their movements.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

They can tell that there are individuals but could not determine the identity of one from another. They could easily track say a person who had broken into a house and was running away but they could not say exactly who that person was.



Identification for these purposes is not an either/or process, meaning you know "exactly" who the person is or you don't know. There are degrees of identification for narrowing down, such as skin color, hair color, clothing, etc. Identifying people is often a process, involving several steps and time. Even if you get a facial picture, then there is a confirmation process.

This does not even take into account how government agencies waste a lot of resources on technology that just does not work. For example, technologies that depend on randomness always fail, based on simple mathematics.

Nice try posting second in a thread, trying your usual disruptive and discouraging technique. You shilling progressives are shameless.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Although these cameras can’t read license plates or see faces

From 2 miles up...

ROTGLMAO!!!!

OK, who's the joker that duct tape the $150, low rez cell phone to the OTC quadcopter?

-t

[mosquitobite]

Nothing to see here folks.

Technology on video games has gone from Atari to Xbox360 but government, no... they can't read license plates or see faces. :D

[tangent4ronpaul]

The FBI’s secret air force watched the streets of Baltimore
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/the-fbis-secret-air-force-watched-the-streets-of-baltimore/

Good article!

-t

[phill4paul]

What? No surveillance blimps?

[tangent4ronpaul]

What? No surveillance blimps?

Just the one parked over DC that can see for about 250 miles... (radius)

-t