Baltimore Aerial Police Surveillance Appeal Met With Skepticism

The Fourth Circuit appears inclined to dismiss an appeal in a case challenging Baltimore’s aerial surveillance program, described by the plaintiffs’ attorney during oral argument on Monday as “the most ambitious mass surveillance program ever deployed in an American city.”

Baltimore law enforcement stopped collecting aerial surveillance information of Baltimore residents and visitors after Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle filed its constitutional claims against the police department, according to a Monday morning en banc hearing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

The six-month pilot program collected location and movement data on at least 600,000 individuals, said ...