Court says Baltimore's aerial surveillance is unconstitutional
Though the program ended in February of this year, the battle continued to determine whether the Baltimore Police Department's aerial surveillance program was lawful. A divided federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that an aerial surveillance program used as a crime-fighting tool by the Baltimore Police Department was unconstitutional and said police must stop using any data obtained through the now-defunct program.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the crime-fighting program was unconstitutional and police must stop using any data that was obtained during the program's tenure. When the program was active for six months, the police department uses airplanes with wide-angle surveillance cameras to surveil the city.