Baltimore police secretly using aerial camera surveillance, report says

The Baltimore Police Department has been using an aerial camera surveillance system repurposed from the Iraq War since January, a Bloomberg report says.

The report published on Tuesday says Dayton, Ohio-based Persistent Surveillance Systems gave the Baltimore police a Cessna airplane outfitted with high-resolution cameras able to cover roughly 30 square miles and transmit images in real time for analysis and long-term archiving.

Officers have relied on the monitoring technology to solve a variety of crimes, including burglaries, hit-and-runs, and homicides. However, Bloomberg claims Baltimore never alerted the public to the privately funded surveillance system.