Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (Nov. 2020)

This post summarizes published decisions from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in November, 2020, that may be of interest to state practitioners. Aerial surveillance program does not violate First and Fourth Amendments; denial of preliminary injunction affirmed Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle v. Baltimore Police Dept., 979 F.3d 219 (Nov. 5, 2020). The City of Baltimore has recently seen very high rates of homicides, and police cleared only around 32% of the cases in 2019. In response, the Baltimore Police Department developed the Aerial Investigative Research program (“AIR”). In partnership with a private entity, three surveillance planes are flown around the city, which can record approximately 90% of the city’s area at once. The cameras record people on the ground as “pixilated dot[s],” and thus obscures the identity of any person observed. The pictures are then sent to a team of analysts. Only when specific violent crimes occur are agents allowed to access the data. When viewing the data, the analysts can track the “dots” coming and going from the scene the crime being investigated. The information is then used in conjunction with traditional surveillance (such as security cameras, license-plate readers, etc.) to locate potential suspects or witnesses to the crime of investigation. The program was initially launched in 2016 in secrecy but was shut down in the wake of media attention. In 2020, the program was publicly reinstated, and limitations designed to address privacy concerns were imposed. The surveillance planes only fly during the daytime; individuals observed by [...]