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Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

> Images are stored for 45 days and can be used only for criminal investigation.

Anyone who believes that, I've got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

> [Police Commissioner Michael] Harrison sees no privacy concern.

I can see him saying he considers the crime fighting value of data gained greater than the privacy lost, but to see no concern sounds like lack of empathy, compassion, and competence.

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Understandable response. But this is far from the first city to do this. Previous cities, the company involved is separate from the police force, and requires a warrant to reveal any footage. Any slipup, they lose their contract. So some incentives to keep it honest.

> Any slipup, they lose their contract

Who enforces it? How can they know?

I noticed you didn’t mention anything about the citizens who might have been affected by a “slip up”. What have those cities done to compensate the victims?

That is much, much worse. If it's a private company they can skirt FOIA and coverup abuse much more easily. The government is getting too good at this outsourcing of all risk and liability.

I like how you take one sentence from the guy and infer the worst.

He's also flying a plane over a city surveilling everyone -- "the most comprehensive surveillance ever imposed on an American city in the history of the country" in one attorney's opinion.

He also said, "There is no expectation of privacy on a public street, a sidewalk. . . while you are outside, there is no expectation of privacy."

I didn't infer the worst, which might be malice or self-serving, not incompetence.

Baltimore also has crime crisis. I think just like how people are willing to give up some freedom in the COVID crisis, people in Baltimore are making a similar choice wrt crime.

Choice? Was there a referendum election about this?

Wait, so we need a referendum for every decision now?

Baltimore has always had a crime crisis. COVID19 is a convenient excuse to enact some draconian "orders" that overstep the normal bounds of authority. I'm sure they believe it will reduce crime, and it probably will. But will they stop using it and/or destroy the data once crime rates trend downwards?

> while you are outside, there is no expectation of privacy.

Am I unreasonable to have an expectation of privacy while in my backyard? Certainly I can have an expectation of privacy while also not being inside a building at the same time.

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