BALTIMORE – Dana Vickers Shelley, Executive Director for the ACLU of Maryland, issued the following statement regarding spy planes in Baltimore:
“The ACLU of Maryland is committed to protecting and preserving the privacy rights of everyone in our state. Surveillance technology designed for a military battlefield has no place in American cities. Baltimore is not a battlefield, and its residents are not the enemy. We have been vocal, clear, and consistent on this matter -- spy planes should never be used under the guise of public safety."
"The spy plane program is a privacy nightmare come to life. It’s the equivalent of requiring residents to wear a GPS tracker whenever they leave their homes. A city with a terrible history of racism and lack of accountability for abuses by police should be the last place a secret program of mass surveillance is used. An entrepreneur’s desire to make more money should not outweigh the privacy rights of the entire population of Baltimore or any community.”
