Denounced by civil liberties lawyers as Orwellian, cursed by residents as a noise nuisance and mocked by a parody Twitter account, the surveillance plane program even drew the skepticism of Baltimore’s top cop.
The BPD agreed to support the flights “only to allow the data to inform us of whether or not the program will work,” Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said last April.
“Not because we have any belief that it will work,” Harrison hastened to add.
But then-Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, arguing it might combat the city’s relentlessly high homicide rate, persisted in pushing for the camera-mounted Cessna flight program, despite the legal challenges, community opposition and high-level doubts.
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