Maryland Transit Administration begins recording passengers conversations.
A Maryland Transit Administration decision to record the conversations of bus drivers and passengers to investigate crimes, accidents and poor customer service has come under attack from privacy advocates and state lawmakers who say it may go too far.
The first 10 buses — marked with signs to alert passengers to the open microphones — began service this week in Baltimore, and officials expect to expand that to 340 buses, about half the fleet, by next summer. Microphones are incorporated in the video surveillance system that has been in place for years.
"We want to make sure people feel safe, and this builds up our arsenal of tools to keep our patrons safe," said Ralign Wells, MTA administrator. "The audio completes the information package for investigators and responders."
Wells said the system was deemed legal by the state attorney general's office and letters were sent to the American Civil Liberties Union and the union representing bus drivers informing them of the initiative. A spokesman for the attorney general's office confirmed that transit officials were advised by their counsel that based on a 2000 appeals court decision, the audio recordings did not violate the state wiretapping law.
But an ACLU lawyer said he was "flabbergasted" that MTA officials would try to record people's conversations under the guise of a pilot program after a similar proposal was rejected in 2009 by the state's highest-ranking transportation official and by the General Assembly on three occasions.
"People don't want or need to have their private conversations recorded by MTA as a condition of riding a bus," said David Rocah, a staff attorney with the Maryland chapter of the ACLU. "A significant number of people have no viable alternative to riding a bus, and they should not be forced to give up their privacy rights."
Two members of the state Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee say the MTA's decision to record passengers without their consent is troubling.
"It's an end run and ripe for a court challenge," said Sen. James Brochin, a Baltimore County Democrat. "They have absolutely no grounds to do this. If we can't get them to listen and change their minds, we'll deal with this ... and make them defend what's indefensible."
Sen. Jamie Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat and a constitutional law expert, said that while he understands the need to protect public transportation customers, "this sounds kind of Big Brotherish to me."
"Public safety" is the excuse of choice for authoritarians who no longer feel constrained by the Constitution. But then, why would they, considering they are being enabled by a federal court system that, time and again, upholds such blatant violations as "reasonable?" The MTA said it first checked with the state Attorney General's office on the legality of adding audio surveillance; the AG's office said it was, based on a 2000 appeals court decision, in which a panel ruled such surveillance did not violate state wiretapping laws (no word on how public eavesdropping applies to a law regulating wiretapping, but the use of tortured logic to implement unconstitutional measures is not a new tactic to authoritarians).
The American Civil Liberties Union does not always come down on the right side of the Constitution either, but in this case, the organization has it right.
David Rocah, a staff attorney with the Maryland chapter of the ACLU, said he was "flabbergasted" by the plan, which he says is being implemented under the guise of a pilot program after a similar proposal was rejected by the state's highest-ranking transportation official and the General Assembly three times in 2009.
MTA police dispatchers say they receive anywhere from 45 to 100 calls daily from bus drivers reporting everything from unruly passengers to criminal activity. Capt. Burna McCollum, commander of the MTA police technical services division, said that while video is a very useful tool in helping to solve crimes, the audio is needed because, essentially, he wants to take away a witnesses' choice not to get involved.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-mta-bus-safety-20121016,0,4501380.story
http://www.naturalnews.com/037841_Baltimore_surveillance_city_buses.html