Bing’s virtual street tour showed Baltimore homicide victim

Bing’s mapping service relies on automated tools for its virtual-tour feature. Until Monday, however, they did not pick up on the fact that a photo of one Baltimore intersection showed the immediate aftermath of a shooting.

On Monday, Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton tweeted Bing images (warning: graphic) showing the corner of Pennington Avenue and Hazel Street in Curtis Bay. The image showed a homicide victim lying in the street, with police surrounding him.
The Sun reported that the photo was taken by Bing’s camera-equipped car on April 29, 2015.

The car, which recorded images for Bing Streetside, photographed the body of a Baltimore man moments after he had been shot. Police say Ricky Chambers Jr. was pronounced dead later at a local hospital.

Bing edited the image after it was made public, inserting a white box over the homicide scene.

In a statement to ABC2, Microsoft said the service relies on an algorithm to protect privacy, but it is “not able to identify all issues with images.”