St. Louis is considering becoming the latest U.S. city to deploy spy planes in it’s bid to battle crime and keep tabs on civil unrest.
This year is shaping up to be one of the most violent in St. Louis’ recent history. There ave been 113 homicides in the city through today – including 43 in the past 40 days alone. It looks as though last year’s total of 194 will be easily surpassed.
The city is considering contracting with Ohio-based Persistent Surveillance Systems, which initially developed its surveillance systems to aid U.S. military forces in Iraq.
The planes in St. Louis would use wide-angle cameras, the footage from which would be paired with video feeds from some 1,100 surveillance cameras installed throughout the city.
“If people know there are eyes everywhere, they are less likely to commit a crime,” Oldenburg said.
The Federal Aviation Administration is currently evaluating a proposal to fly a surveillance drone over San Diego. And in April, Baltimore City officials used a small fleet of surveillance craft to fly above the city to monitor crime during the Covid19 lockdown.