Surveillance drones have been increasingly popular among law enforcement agencies across the United States in recent years, drawing criticism from privacy advocates. However, freshly obtained aerial surveillance footage from the Dallas Police Department in Texas and what appears to be the Georgia State Patrol highlights the range and quality of footage captured by helicopters.
On Friday, the transparency activist group Distributed Denial of Secrets, or DDoSecrets, released a 1.8-terabyte archive of police helicopter footage on its website. DDoSecrets cofounder Emma Best said her organization doesn't know who shared the material and that no affiliation or purpose for disclosing the files was given. The source just stated that the data was being stored in insecure cloud infrastructure by the two police departments.
In June 2020, DDoSecrets made headlines when it revealed a massive leak of law enforcement data taken by a hacker linked to Anonymous. Emails, audio, video, and intelligence documents from more than 200 states, municipal, and federal agencies around the US were included in the data, called BlueLeaks. DDoSecrets was banned from Twitter, and Reddit banned the r/blueleaks subreddit.
The report merely stated that the law enforcement agencies responsible for keeping the video secure were sorting the data in an insecure cloud infrastructure when the bad actor obtained access and posted the video online. WIRED examined the material that was posted online, and according to their article, the samples included footage of a helicopter being piloted during the day and at night, recording everything from an aerial view.
“This is exactly one of the things that people are constantly warning about, especially when it comes to government surveillance and corporate data mining,” Best told WIRED in a text message interview. “Not only is the surveillance itself problematic and worrisome, but the data is not handled in the ideal conditions we're always promised."
Police drones have gained a lot of attention recently because they represent a new generation of aerial vehicles capable of stealthy surveillance and novel behaviors, such as flying indoors. Law enforcement forces, on the other hand, have been using helicopters for aerial surveys and monitoring for decades. However, DDoSecrets' footage shows how successful helicopter-mounted cameras are in capturing extremely crisp and detailed video near to the ground.
Given that such footage could be helpful in a variety of ways for stalkers, assailants seeking materials for blackmail, domestic or international terrorist groups, or those conducting espionage operations, privacy advocates underline the importance of safeguarding aerial police surveillance data.
