From Motherboard:
Now, in response to a FOIA request from the ACLU, the Bureau has released more than 18 hours of aerial footage from the Baltimore protests captured by their once-secret spy planes, which regularly fly in circles above major cities and are commonly registered to fake companies.
The cache is likely the most comprehensive collection of aerial surveillance footage ever released by a US law enforcement agency...
The footage shows the crowds of protesters captured in a combination of visible light and infrared spectrum video taken by the planes' wing-mounted FLIR Talon cameras.
While individual faces are not clearly visible in the videos, it's frighteningly easy to imagine how cameras with a slightly improved zoom resolution and face recognition technology could be used to identify protesters in the future. (Or may even have been used but not released)
The FBI says they're only using the planes to track specific suspects in serious crime investigations, according to the article, which adds that "The FBI flew their spy planes more than 3,500 times in the last six months of 2015, according to a Buzzfeed News analysis of data collected by the aircraft-tracking site FlightRadar24."
http://www.wxyz.com/news/local-news/investigations/some-religious-groups-leery-of-fbi-spy-planes-circling-se-michigan
The FBI videos are interesting to watch.
ReplyDeleteIn the first one I saw a circle form in the crowd and it seemed like someone was break dancing in the center of it...LOL
https://vault.fbi.gov/protests-in-baltimore-maryland-2015/unedited-versions-of-video-surveillance-footage
I am sure they have footage that is much more detailed then what has been released to public viewing.
But even so the public is the public and there is no crime for anyone to take public videos or pictures.
Therefore if it is ok, than the FBI or whom ever has the same rights to video or take public pictures.
The General Rule: If You Can See It You Can Shoot It
http://lifehacker.com/5912250/know-your-rights-photography-in-public