Councilman Brandon Scott Says Police Surveillance 'A Secret' To Him

Baltimore City Councilman Brandon Scott is vice chairman of the City Council's public safety committee. Had the police-commissioned trial of an airborne surveillance program revealed this week gone through the City Council for approval, he would have known about it.

Rather, when it was revealed by Bloomberg this week, it was the first he heard of it. And that's why Scott, in a phone interview with C4, disputed police assertions the program was not deliberately kept secret.

"The definition of secret is something that people don't know about and if we didn't know, guess what?" Scott said. "To me it was a secret."

He was also skeptical of police claims that the cameras aren't unlike closed circuit CitiWatch or red light cameras. Scott said that other cameras are less secretive. Blue lights signal CityWatch cameras. Signs alert drivers about red light cameras and speed cameras and, in Virginia, aircraft tracking speeding vehicles.

"We have to be as transparent as possible, and I think that's where a lot, if not most, of folks' anger...come[s] from," Scott said.

While he said he often gets calls from residents wanting CitiWatch cameras in their neighborhood, he said the CitiWatch program was introduced in a manner that allowed for public discussion well before cameras were installed.

"The main issue here is that people did not know and been able to have that discussion open in a way that was constructive," Scott said.

He said he doesn't know it the U.S. Department of Justice, which recently released a scathing report on the city's police practices, was or has since become aware of the surveillance practices, but said that's one of the things he plans to look into when he gets back from vacation on Monday.