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The big takeaway from this Brew piece is less so the noise the surveillance plane makes than the fact that it is flying sometimes as low as 3,500 feet; the entire sell of this was it was at 8,500 feet covering 30 sq miles: https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2020/05/13/in-baltimore-complaints-about-the-sounds-of-surveillance/
That matters especially because Judge Bennett's opinion when the ACLU filed a lawsuit (ACLU lost, is appealing it)—which was limited and weak imo—is that the plane isn't a privacy violation because of its low resolution
The lower it flies, the less ground it covers at once (so in that sense it is less effective) and the better the resolution is. Putting aside that tech improves so resolution will go up, this is yet another way the plane's launch has continued to be non-transparent and deceptive
An interesting thing in that Brew piece is police said they've received no noise complaints. Seems like those who oppose the plane should start sending in those noise complaints (not to mention, the plane is actually very fucking loud)
Also even when the footage looks awful, one can glean a lot of information from it, especially when you know what you're looking for, as I explained here https://theappeal.org/baltimore-police-shooting-new-motion/
Anyone who attended the February Baltimore Legal Hackers event also got to see the footage of this police shooting the plane captured because hey, I showed 15 minutes of footage to the audience
For example even when the footage is low resolution or blurry as it is here; by toggling between the imagery and google maps you can get additional info about location etc
Here is pretty much the exact moment when cops boxed a man in and shot him. If you know you are looking at a police shooting the possibilities for additional info/context plus rewind/fast forward is significant
That you're "only a dot" or that people's identities cannot be determined is not particularly comforting when you can cross reference with other surveillance (such as Citiwatch) or use context clues to gather info about location etc even from shoddy imagery
And remember, the technicians hired are taught the software (many of them are gamers etc); one selling point is that using the tech and analyzing the data isn't complicated; yet BPD and plane folks also claim it's hard to abuse or surmise much from it.
Well which is it? Is this amazing police investigation-changing tech with lots of uses or is it not that complicated and not that good-looking? It can't be both. Depending on the debate, police and tech will float one of those two arguments.
