Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Ohio town wants to implement massive aerial surveillance program
Officials with the Dayton City Commission recently announced that they hope to sign a $120,000 contract with a local security company in order to give law enforcement agencies an eye-in-the-sky ability unheard of elsewhere in America. While the Federal Aviation Administration continues to ponder just exactly how unmanned aerial vehicles or drones will be able to conduct surveillance in the sky, sending manned aircraft through the clouds isn’t something that involves as many hurdles. That will make it all the easier if Dayton gets the go-ahead to sign-on to a pricey program being touted by Persistent Surveillance Systems.
Persistent Surveillance Systems, or PSS, currently has operations throughout the Dayton area in order to keep watch over private property, like a downtown business park. If they sign on with the city proper, though, PSS will be asked to send airplanes in the sky to snoop on any seemingly illegal activity on the ground.
According to a slideshow presented before the City Commission earlier this year and since obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, Dayton officials are looking at more than just a dinky plane outfitted with a couple of Kodaks. The city is apparently pursuing a program called “Trusted Situational Awareness,” which PSS says can collect real-time data and imagery to law enforcement so the police can identify and interrupt illegal activity while at the same time collecting “valuable forensic intelligence.”
That right there was enough to raise a red flag with Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. After viewing the slideshow for himself this week, he writes on his blog that signing on to the “Trusted Situational Awareness” program could put Dayton’s population under an ever present microscope.
“’Forensic intelligence’ usually means something like, ‘keeping records of everything everybody is doing so we can go back and carry out retroactive surveillance whenever we need it,’” says Stanley.
Persistent Surveillance Systems, or PSS, currently has operations throughout the Dayton area in order to keep watch over private property, like a downtown business park. If they sign on with the city proper, though, PSS will be asked to send airplanes in the sky to snoop on any seemingly illegal activity on the ground.
According to a slideshow presented before the City Commission earlier this year and since obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, Dayton officials are looking at more than just a dinky plane outfitted with a couple of Kodaks. The city is apparently pursuing a program called “Trusted Situational Awareness,” which PSS says can collect real-time data and imagery to law enforcement so the police can identify and interrupt illegal activity while at the same time collecting “valuable forensic intelligence.”
That right there was enough to raise a red flag with Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. After viewing the slideshow for himself this week, he writes on his blog that signing on to the “Trusted Situational Awareness” program could put Dayton’s population under an ever present microscope.
“’Forensic intelligence’ usually means something like, ‘keeping records of everything everybody is doing so we can go back and carry out retroactive surveillance whenever we need it,’” says Stanley.
http://rt.com/usa/program-city-surveillance-dayton-412/
Guess it is no surprise PSS is owned by ...Raytheon.
Same system is used by ...military?...CIA??? in Afghanistan.
Just Google Persistent Surveillance Systems
and see what pops up.
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Yeah, it's just a coincidence. 
yep, surely must be co-incidence.....
