After overcoming legal challenges, the controversial Baltimore Police surveillance program is launching its first flight Friday, the Baltimore Sun reports. The Aerial Investigation Research Pilot Program (AIR) will fly three planes over Baltimore during the next six months to gather information police hope will help investigate murders, nonfatal shootings, armed robberies and carjackings. Last month, the city’s spending board approved the $3.7 million program, which is being paid for by Texas philanthropists Laura and John Arnold through their organization, Arnold Ventures. “I remain cautiously optimistic about the potential of this program and will allow the data to show us the efficacy of this technology as a potential tool … in solving and reducing violent crime,” said Police Commissioner Michael Harrison.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland has lobbied against the program after an earlier launch was made public. That program, which wasn’t shared with the city’s political leaders or the public, was later suspended. The ACLU sought an injunction to keep the program grounded, but a federal judge ruled last week that the program does not violate privacy rights of city residents and allowed a trial run of the flights to proceed. U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett cited Baltimore’s continued high homicide rate. “In a city plagued with violent crime and clamoring for police protections, this Court is loathe to take the ‘extraordinary’ step of stopping the AIR program before it even begins,” he wrote. The ACLU will appeal the decision. “If allowed to stand, this ruling is a decision that the city, and the country, will come to regret,” said the ACLU’s David Rocah.