Civic News
Crime / Marketing / Municipal government

Baltimore police retrieve previously unretrievable surveillance plane emails

The Baltimore Sun was told the emails couldn't be accessed. But finally they turned up.

A Cessna like the planes that are often used for surveillance. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

After several weeks, it appears the effort by the Baltimore Sun to look at emails related to the Baltimore Police Department’s arrangement with a company to fly a surveillance plane over Baltimore shined some light.
The Sun reports that it requested emails following revelations about the surveillance plane operated by Persistent Surveillance Systems, which was revealed by Bloomberg News in August. The plane flew over the city in what police said was a test last year.
Initially, the emails of a top official who is in charge of the department’s Homeland Security division were “unable to be retrieved,” the Sun reported Jan. 3. The account of former chief Marcos Zarragoitia, who resigned in September, was apparently not properly configured.
But last week, the lost emails were found. The Mayor’s Office of Information Technology got involved to correct the problem, the Sun reported, but didn’t specify how they were liberated.
They were related to the city’s work with a foundation to transfer funds, and one case in which police wanted to discuss using the surveillance in seeking a search warrant.
Not all emails were turned over, however, as police withheld documents that detailed information about several shootings and homicides, as well as two that fell under attorney-client privilege.

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