[Editor’s Note: This story was published in partnership with The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. An earlier version of this story, which ran in our November 2021 issue, previously appeared online.] 

Baltimore’s 190th homicide victim this year was a 64-year-old man named Vaseles Nettles. He was shot on July 19 in Forest Park, a Northwest neighbor- hood lined with single-family homes, blocks away from where many wealthier Black professionals call home. Like so many killings in Baltimore, where violence spiked in 2015 following the death of Freddie Gray and has remained high, Nettles’ death attracted brief media attention before quickly fading from the news.

That said, just as police found the man’s body, the City Council considered its latest strategy in beating back the steady pace of killings and shootings: cash rewards for any information that could lead to an arrest, through a bill introduced by Councilperson Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer. “Right now the clearance rate is under 50 percent,” Schleifer says, “so you have over a 50 percent chance in Baltimore of getting away with murder.”

That Schleifer would propose cash rewards, a strategy that has limited evidence of success behind it, speaks to the city leadership’s state of desperation to tamp down violence: People are willing to try something, anything, to stop the city’s record-setting pace of homicides—more than 250 by the end of September.

Caught in the middle of the fight is new mayor Brandon Scott, the 37-year-old former council president and longtime supporter of violence interruption programs, who successfully campaigned for the city’s top job on a platform that emphasized “reimagining” public safety to rely less on police.

On the right are old, entrenched rivals like Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who told a local Fox television station reporter earlier this year that the only way for the state to help “would be to declare martial law.” Former prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah, who ran against Scott for mayor in 2020, took to Twitter to launch a salvo at Scott for what he called the failed public safety plan. There is also pressure coming from small-business owners.

But the pressure coming from the mayor’s left flank, his own base, may be the greatest threat to the still-early days of his leadership. In Baltimore, political lines are drawn in shades of blue, separating moderate Democrats, progressives, and those farther left.

Scott rose to power by tying these factions together with a central promise: to reform the Baltimore Police Department, an agency under federal consent decree, while shifting police resources to other agencies to combat the drivers of violence. Baltimore spends more per capita on policing than any major city in the country, far outpacing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and it was Scott’s pledge to make sweeping change that won over far-left voters.

His allies actively pushed the mayor to continue making cuts to the police budget, reductions he successfully lobbied for as City Council president last year. But when budget deliberations came in 2021, and Scott proposed increasing the police budget by $28 million, those same supporters became outspoken critics of the mayor.

“The mayor is no longer an ally,” Rob Ferrell, senior organizer with Organizing Black, a part of the Campaign for Justice, Safety and Jobs, says bluntly. “He is the target.”

Scott has been in office only since December. Much of his strategy to make Baltimore a safer city—growing local community-based violence interruption groups; training the entire city staff in trauma-informed care; making every agency responsible for creating a plan to address public health and violence—is in its infancy. As the homicide tally rises, and the political attacks ramp up, criticism of the mayor has the potential to make it harder for him to get the support and resources he needs to fulfill his long-term promises in the next budget cycle.

Each spring, Baltimore residents engage in a populist tradition through which they can sound off on the city budget. It’s called Taxpayers’ Night. Even as COVID-19 vaccines were rolling out, this year’s Taxpayers’ Night was virtual. And without the crowds, the chanting, the finger-pointing, the messy parts of democracy-making can sometimes lack its dramatic flair. Still, even without the usual booming voices bouncing off the marble at the city’s traditional War Memorial building setting, the rage over this year’s police budget increase spilled from more than 80 computer screens.

“It should not be possible for a moral mayor to claim he embraces the best highest possible use of precious and scarce revenue…while increasing the budget,” said Melissa Schober, a Baltimore resident, parent, and activist. She ended her spoken remarks, saying, “I regret my vote for you, Mr. Mayor.”

The mayor’s proposal to add $28 million to the police budget made supporters wonder whether they had been played. “The question for the mayor is, did you really want to [defund]?” says Ralikh Hayes, deputy director of Organizing Black, a group tied to the Movement for Black Lives. “Or was this a talking point to get votes?”

Candidate Scott’s push to defund came in a watershed year for policing and public safety, after the national uprising that followed the police killing of George Floyd. Now that Mayor Scott has to govern, he’s left to make the case that his views and plans haven’t changed. He just needs time, he says. He says he still wants to change Baltimore from a city that relies on law enforcement into one that offers sufficient public services to address poverty, structural racism, insufficient housing, addiction, and joblessness.

That degree of change can’t happen in a single budget, he adds, but over the course of several years. “I have been consistent that reimagining public safety and the budget would not be overnight work,” Scott says.

Scott’s allies in City Hall, even those who support the idea of defunding the police, took their cues from the mayor that this was not going to be a year when the Baltimore Police Department budget would be pared back.

“I have a relationship with a mayor [Scott] who’s in a hard position,” says City Councilperson Ryan Dorsey, a consistent Baltimore Police Department critic and generally considered the 15-member council’s most progressive member.

Baltimore’s 2021-22 budget cut overall spending for services, including city public schools, while increasing police spending—and, activists note, not investing enough in sectors that could address the root causes of violence. The section of City Hall responsible for growing the violence interruption programs central to Scott’s own vision for reducing crime received a $6 million bump, but the money came mostly from state and federal grants. In justifying the proposed increases to the police budget, Scott said they were necessary to cover the city’s pension obligations and increased healthcare costs for the 2021-22 fiscal year.

Of course, Scott has another authority to answer to, beyond the electorate. Looming over any proposed cut to police spending is the 2017 federal consent decree enacted after the death of Freddie Gray prompted by a federal investigation into the department. It found that police officers were sweeping corners and engaging in racial targeting, excessive force, stop-and-frisk arrests that violated some residents’ constitutional rights. The court order requires the city to retrain its officers, upgrade its computer systems, and maintain a certain level of police presence on the streets. The oversight from the consent decree monitoring team alone costs $1.5 million each year. The Police Department’s compliance bureau costs another $38 million annually.

Critics of City Hall argue that the consent decree, and the politics around wrangling enough votes to reduce police spending, are just cover for an administration that isn’t truly committed to overhauling public safety. “You would have to be a radical and bold dude to say [expletive] the consent decree,” Ferrell says. “We now know who [Brandon Scott] is. And going against the consent decree, that’s not who he is.”

But consent decree monitor Judge James K. Bredar has warned against making drastic changes to the Police Department while it’s under the federal court order. Too severe a cut to the department could trigger legal action by the judge. “The court can levy fines against your city and you’re forced to pay,” Councilmember Zeke Cohen says.

Scott has consistently supported the reforms the consent decree calls for. This summer he met with President Joe Biden, who also supports federal interventions in local policing. “We are fully committed to the consent decree,” Scott says, “and that comes with responsibilities that we have to fund.”

Former Mayor Sheila Dixon, who was forced to resign from the office in 2010 and then also ran against Scott in 2020, knows firsthand how hard it is to balance the impulse to use police to reduce violence, and the understanding that the long-term fight against crime is about addressing social problems. Scott’s problem is not execution, she said, but communication.

While Scott says he’s been clear and realistic, Dixon says he has failed to convey the limits he would face. “I don’t make a promise I don’t keep,” she says, referring to Scott’s close work with the defund movement. “I am not going to bullshit people. Brandon knew the budget.”

As spring gave way to summer, violence in the city ratcheted up even more. Nine homicides occurred during Memorial Day weekend. By the following weekend, the largely white, affluent Fells Point neighborhood saw two separate shootings that left three men injured. The incident sparked calls from the vocal business class to demand the mayor, top city prosecutor Marilyn Mosby, and the Police Department crack down on violence and petty crimes.

Since COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed, there have been large informal gatherings in the neighborhood. Business owners have reported open-air drug sales, and in a letter signed by 37 Fells Point business owners, they claimed a “culture of lawlessness” has contributed to violence. The business owners threatened to place their taxes in escrow to punish the city if it didn’t act quickly.

The city responded by hosting a virtual meeting days after the Fells Point shooting, for which 700 people logged on to hear how the Scott administration would address the recent shootings and nuisance violations. Suggestions filled the comment section of the online gathering. Could the city “constitutionally” use stop-and-frisk? Could it set up mobile metal detectors?

Some blamed the consent decree for not allowing the police to be as tough on crime as they believed was necessary. When the comments got hot, the city disabled the chat function. But that didn’t cool the conversation. People went analog, holding up pieces of paper in front of their webcams. They asked, “Where is the mayor?”

“COPS DON’T STOP CRIME,” SAYS ROB FERRELL WITH ORGANIZING BLACK. “THEY RESPOND TO CRIME.”

Scott’s absence (he had another engagement) enraged many on the call. His supporters weren’t upset that he had missed the meeting, but that the city had agreed to host it.

The city’s response to the Fells Point violence ultimately involved more policing. Starting June 12, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison delivered an expansion of patrols across the city. In Fells Point, the surge came with more cops on foot and in cars and helicopters. State Police and the Baltimore Sheriff’s Department also helped. In other hot spots, like Pennsylvania Avenue, in the heart of the Black community of West Baltimore, cops camped out by intersections.

But even with more police, shots were fired in Fells Point in the early morning hours of June 13. Just hours earlier, Tavon Jenkins was shot and killed blocks away from where cops had set up additional posts in West Baltimore. The incidents only intensified calls from Scott’s base that relying on police wasn’t working. “Cops don’t stop crime,” Ferrell says. “They respond to crime.”

On July 1, Safe Streets violence interrupter Kenyell Wilson was gunned down near the Cherry Hill neighborhood where he worked. Safe Streets had just celebrated a year without a single homicide at its site in Cherry Hill. Wilson’s death marked the second killing of a Safe Streets violence interrupter this year. Dante Barksdale, a close ally of the mayor, was killed in East Baltimore in January.

Scott reasserted his support for groups like Safe Streets in slowing violence in the city, but also vowed to use every resource available through the Police Department to solve Wilson’s killing.

After weeks of heated debate about the future of public safety in Baltimore, on July 23 Scott rolled out what he called a “comprehensive violence prevention plan” that would fulfill his “commitment to deliver a holistic, comprehensive approach to combat gun violence.” Scott said that community members got to shape the 32-page plan by participating in 36 listening sessions.

Highlights include the increased funding for Safe Streets. There’s also “expanded investment” in the nonprofit Roca, which focuses on interventions with at-risk youth and young adults; the city’s seven hospital-based violence intervention partnerships; and several other organizations. The plan will use American Rescue Plan Act money. Still, the city has not made a fiscal commitment to the plan beyond the federal dollars being spent this year.

The plan also calls for holding gun traffickers and straw purchasers accountable, something Scott had previously traveled to the White House to discuss, along with other crime prevention strategies, amid rising homicide rates in many cities. Additionally, it calls for expanded services to gunshot survivors, victims of domestic abuse, and people reentering society after incarceration.

“For the first time, Baltimore residents were asked what they wanted to see in a public safety strategy, and they spoke up,” said Scott in releasing the plan this July.

Overall, the plan appeared, temporarily, to quell some fears among Baltimore activists. They said—at least on social media—that Scott had not abandoned his pledge. Whether he’s ultimately successful in transforming a city known for its past mass incarceration policies and corrupt police force into a model of policing reform remains to be seen. It likely hinges on whether he reaches his stated goal of reducing shootings by 15 percent over the next five years. The city will certainly be watching.

Editor’s note: This article was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

On the sweltering afternoon of June 6, thousands of protesters gathered in front of Baltimore’s Harriet Tubman Solidarity Center on North Charles Street. Organizers passed out dozens of backpacks full of water bottles, granola bars, first aid kits, and hand sanitizer to volunteer medics. An informal motorcade, including a van spray painted with “Black Lives Matter,” accompanied the demonstration, which eventually wound past the city jail, the Douglass Homes public housing complex, Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) headquarters, and City Hall. Trucks bore poster images of unarmed Black men and women killed at the hands of police: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a litany of others.

The Saturday demonstration grew into one of Baltimore’s largest public protests against police brutality and police department militarization since the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. Rev. Annie Chambers, an East Baltimore community activist who marched with Rev. Martin Luther King, addressed the crowd via a megaphone before the march began: “We are ready. We are fired up! We won’t take it anymore!” An estimated 8,000 protesters turned out, chanting “No Justice, No Peace,” joining solidarity marches in cities worldwide.

In the sky above Rev. Chambers and the throng of protesters, a plane could be seen briefly circling, passing behind a cloud, and re-emerging. No one seemed to be looking up, but the Cessna T207’s battlefield-developed HawkEye II Wide Area Surveillance System cameras were looking down, and recording people’s movements as protesters began marching, chanting “Say His Name” and “George Floyd” as they reached the shadows of Green Mount Cemetery.

Almost daily since late April, that Cessna propeller plane—equipped with a 192 mega-pixel, full-color video camera system—has been flying in circles over Baltimore at altitudes between 4,000 and 9,000 feet, up to 11 hours a day. Launched after surviving an ACLU court challenge filed on behalf of local civil liberties activists, the Baltimore police “spy plane” program, as it is derided by critics, has hit the halfway point of its six-month pilot run.

After more than 700 hours aloft over the city, just one arrest has been made with aid from the program’s imagery data, according to BPD. Meanwhile, major Black Lives Matters protests have been among public street activities widely captured and recorded.

In late June, a second video camera-equipped Cessna also took off over the city, sporadically migrating out into surrounding counties. A third is on the way, police say. Soon, everything that Baltimore’s 600,000 residents do outdoors in 90 percent of the city’s 92 square miles could be recorded by a near-constant eye-in-the-sky. Known formally as the BPD Aerial Investigation Research Pilot Program, the initiative is, for all intents and purposes, a high-cost reboot of the secretive 2016 surveillance collaboration between an embattled BPD and the private Dayton, Ohio-based company Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS). The tab for the $3.7 million experiment is being picked up by a third-party—Arnold Ventures, LLC, a data-oriented philanthropic fund run by a billionaire former Enron trader and hedge fund manager, and his wife. Arnold Ventures funded the 2016 surveillance flights, too.

For Baltimore police, the purpose of the do-over is not to track protesters, who are likely scooped up in the automatic surveillance net (along with residents, visitors, and workers in the city), but to locate witnesses, suspects, and vehicles related to serious “target crimes” such as homicides and armed robberies. For Persistent Surveillance Systems, the intention goes beyond helping city detectives solve crimes: Baltimore is a testing ground to help market the company’s technology nationwide. Why the repeat performance here? For starters, poor record-keeping by the police department apparently hindered any real study of the 2016 surveillance effort. According to reporting by the Baltimore Sun two years later, the best anyone can tell is that aerial footage may, or may not have, played a role in closing one of the roughly 100 murder cases during the 2016 flights.

Despite the hue and cry after Bloomberg Businessweek broke the surveillance story in 2016, Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young and the Board of Estimates, where Young influences the majority of votes, approved the current pilot contract on April 1. In doing so, Baltimore earned the dubious honor of becoming the first U.S. city to contractually agree to be continually monitored by surveillance planes.

This time, at least, outside researchers from New York University and the RAND Corporation—albeit funded by the same entity paying for the pilot, Arnold Ventures—have been hired to evaluate the initiative. Morgan State University researchers, with funding from the Abell Foundation, will be also provided with imagery, investigative reports, and other information.

In April, David Rocah, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland, had called it “absurd” to consider the plan in the midst of a pandemic and stay-at-home orders. That said, community response has been mixed. Though controversial, the aerial surveillance program has some local support, including more than 70 percent of 500 city residents polled late last year. Ross T. McNutt, a former U.S. Air Force officer and PSS founder, has claimed his surveillance operation can dramatically reduce cities’ murder rates­—throwing out a figure of 20-30 percent—by solving and deterring crimes. City Council President Brandon Scott, the Democratic nominee for mayor and an outspoken opponent of the surveillance planes, tried to defer a contract vote, then voted against it.

“It’s nothing other than a gimmick,” Scott says of the promise that surveillance planes will put violent criminals behind bars and reverse the shooting epidemic in Baltimore. “It’s nothing other than someone trying to play against a city that’s hurting with violence, and that’s why people will reach out to something like this because they’re looking for anything. But it won’t replace a real plan for public safety…We shouldn’t be the guinea pigs. But we are.”

A researcher with a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as former Air Force officer, McNutt developed his wide-area persistent surveillance system—multiple cameras placed at different angles at the bottom of a plane, with their video feeds stitched together by computers—for hunting down bombing suspects on battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. Seeing its effectiveness in the Middle East, McNutt has said, it dawned on him that his surveillance system could be converted for use in urban America. After leaving the military in 2007, he set up his venture in the hangar of a small airport outside Dayton, Ohio—home to the airplane’s inventors, the pioneering Wright brothers, whose 1903 first flight was soon weaponized when the U.S. Army became the brothers’ first government customer. For more than a decade, he has been trying to sell his technology to cities and local law enforcement agencies.

McNutt, whose jocular high football coach demeanor belies a sharp engineering mind and relentless salesmanship, has compared his technology to “a live version of Google Earth,” with a rewind button. Under the Baltimore agreement, surveillance footage is to be played back later, like TiVo, upon request from police investigators. “You can follow someone back from a murder scene, to the house they came from, and then to the house they go to,” McNutt explained for a pitch just a few months ago in Kansas City, MO.

McNutt has tried to work his magic coast-to-coast, and beyond. In 2012, the Los Angeles County’s Sheriff’s Department and McNutt’s planes tried wide-area surveillance over Compton, California, without notifying residents or elected leaders. In 2014, he pitched Dayton the idea, but ran into stiff civil liberties opposition from the community. In 2016, without knowledge of the mayor, City Council, or citizens, then-Baltimore Police Department Commissioner Kevin Davis permitted the months-long surveillance until the program was exposed. (Ever the true-believer, the publicity-seeking McNutt fully cooperated with Bloomberg Businessweek to break the story of the undisclosed flights.)

In 2017, Miami-Dade police expressed interest, but that inquiry was also beaten back by privacy advocates. He tried Philadelphia, to no avail. McNutt did get a brief commission from the city of Juarez, Mexico, in 2009, where his company tackled various crimes, including helping solve a murder via a rather impressive analysis. He has also landed one-off coverage of events, including a NASCAR race and the Ohio political rally where Sen. John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008, but otherwise he failed to nab a big contract from a city.

“I don’t have good statistical data yet,” McNutt told Bloomberg Businessweek in 2016, referring to Baltimore, “but that’s part of the reason we’re here.”

With homicides totaling more than 300 annually for the past five years and the highest per capita murder rate in its history last year, Charm City serves as a seemingly irresistible test site for McNutt and Persistent Surveillance Systems, but the plan is problematic for other reasons: Surveillance so far has predominately centered on majority Black neighborhoods in the city. Since taking off this spring, the initial plane has generally flown in wide circles around Southwest and West Baltimore—sections of the city with large Black populations—as well as Southeast neighborhoods and downtown, according to online flight trackers based on FAA and other flight data sources. Overall, the police department says, flights are scheduled over areas where BPD data indicates most homicides occur, and the images it records are used after a crime has been committed and an initial investigation determines aerial footage might be helpful.

“The route for the AIR Pilot Program is based on data to support investigation of only serious offenses, to include murder, non-fatal shootings, armed robberies and car-jackings crime categories,” BPD communications director Lindsey Eldridge says. “The program is not real-time, active surveillance, but is only used for investigative look-backs for crimes within the specific categories described above [and] can only be accessed if an incident has occurred within those categories.”

Vehicles can be seen in the images, though McNutt—who did not respond to several requests for a comment for this story—and Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison have said the planes’ cameras only collect low-resolution “dots,” which indicate a person but cannot identify physical characteristics such as race or facial features. (The “dot” often looks more like an elongated “line” during analyses, according to McNutt’s presentations, and the PSS website says the HawkEye II provides a 1/2-meter resolution—the ability of a sensor to pick up objects a half-meter in size or more. McNutt told viewers watching a recorded murder during a presentation to the ACLU: “This is your victim. And you can actually see the guy doubling over, there.”)

Police plan to identify suspects or witnesses partly by cross-checking images with the department’s 750-plus CitiWatch CCTV video cameras, as well as license plate readers and other policing tech. It’s worth noting that PSS, not the police department, owns the imagery data collected. Under the contract, however, unrequested data is to be deleted by PSS after 45 days, and PSS cannot sell images elsewhere. Data requested by police for investigations becomes part of a case’s permanent file.

How are things going at the halfway mark? As of July 27, according to the police department, 72 aerial imagery analysis, or “evidentiary packets,” have been forwarded from PSS, at the request of the BPD, to police investigators. According to BPD, one homicide arrest to date has been made at least partly based on aerial surveillance. In a second shooting case, a vehicle and person of interest have been identified with the assistance of aerial surveillance. Those investigations are ongoing. Meanwhile, homicides in Baltimore continue unabated despite the planes and a raging pandemic that is keeping many people indoors.

The city counted 191 homicides by late July, compared to 196 by the same time last year, as reported by the Sun, keeping pace to approach last year’s 348 murders, a rate of 57 killings per 100,000 people, the worst homicide rate in the city’s history.

More recently, a second Cessna T207, has started widening the surveillance range, circling or crisscrossing neighborhoods including Charles Village, Belair-Edison, Hampden, and Roland Park. A possible red flag: the second plane has also taken unexplained jags out into Baltimore, Howard, and Anne Arundel counties, according to publicly available flight data. Police say images are only captured within Baltimore city limits, though even the BPD project’s “Total Coverage” plan appears to go outside city boundaries. During some orbits, PSS-hired planes have flown over Towson, Lutherville-Timonium, and Middle River, among other areas, meaning they’ve at least been capable of recording county residents’ movements outside as well.

Both Commissioner Harrison and Baltimore County leaders said they are unaware of such flights. Harrison points out that BPD doesn’t control precisely where the planes go. “Though we don’t control the planes, we’re under contract and it’s to their advantage to live up to it, because we’re their first client,” Harrison says.

Dori Henry, Baltimore County’s communications director, said PSS has not contacted county officials nor the police department about its flights, and they have no knowledge of data being collected in the county. “We currently have no plans to use such technology,” she adds. Baltimore County Councilman David Marks, who represents Towson and other areas, said he was unaware of any notifications to the county when presented with an aerial map. “I am not opposed to surveillance planes to reduce crime,” Marks says. “I believe we need many tools to reduce what seems to be an escalating crime rate, but I do not appreciate city-operated surveillance without consultation with Baltimore County officials.”

Meanwhile, concerns about the infringement of civil liberties, in particular the potential for abuse in the filming of Black Lives Matter activists and other protesters, remain. So does uneasiness about putting a massive new surveillance tool in the hands of a police department currently under a U.S. Department of Justice consent decree, in the wake of a 2017 federal finding of widespread racial bias, corruption, and police brutality.

Federal aerial surveillance planes are in the air, too, across the nation. The Department of Homeland Security has surveilled Black Lives Matter protests from the air in at least 15 U.S. cities, recording weeks of protesters’ movements on the streets following Floyd’s death—dispatching drones, helicopters, and planes, according to reports by The New York Times.

On June 1 in Baltimore, the city’s PSS-operated surveillance planes were in the air when thousands of protesters flooded I-83 and other areas, and airborne during the massive protest on June 6, and later on June 12, when the flight path encompassed City Hall as protesters painted “DEFUND THE POLICE” on Gay Street as the City Council debated the proposed $550-million police budget.

The Cessna T207 and its battlefield-developed cameras flew overhead the next day again, circling near protests outside Douglass Homes. A week later, during a Juneteenth tribute, the plane’s path tracked close to other peaceful demonstrations downtown, according to flight tracker data. And when the statue of Christopher Columbus was lassoed, pulled down, smashed up and rolled away by protesters chanting: “Hey, hey, ho, ho, this racist guy has got to go!” on Independence Day? The surveillance plane flew nearly directly overhead as Columbus was dumped, headless, into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Baltimore police say the planes are not targeting protesters at all. “Protests are not included in the scope of the AIR Pilot Program and there are no scenarios of the [aerial surveillance] following public protest on city streets,” Eldridge says. In an e-mail responding to a Baltimore magazine query about the Columbus statue removal by protesters on July 4, which Harrison said is being investigated, Eldridge emphasized that “the AIR Pilot Program is NOT being used in any investigation of the Columbus Statue.”

While police say they aren’t surveilling protesters, under the contract it appears they technically can. The police commissioner, if he requests in writing, can access surveillance “in addition to target crimes…in extraordinary and exigent circumstances,” and in “real time.” Harrison has not requested any real-time footage, Eldridge says.

Regardless, critics argue that incessant, Orwellian-style surveillance affects individuals’ sense of freedom to express First Amendment-protected speech.

Rocah, of the ACLU of Maryland, says the planes are a problem for everyone, including those “who came to a demonstration and who they met with, and where all those people live and what they do….That is dangerous [and] fundamentally incompatible with a democratic society. That is not a power that the government should have in a democracy.”

The FBI, which contends it does not monitor activity protected by the First Amendment, keeps a fleet of higher-resolution surveillance planes, one which flew over Washington, D.C. protests in June. According to BuzzFeed, which has tracked the plane’s flight paths, it’s the same aircraft that notoriously flew over Baltimore during unrest after Gray’s death in 2015. At the time, the FBI claimed the planes took video surveillance of Baltimore streets to help local police prevent violence. Yet footage later acquired by the ACLU and reported by BuzzFeed revealed apparently peaceful protests and marches in Baltimore were recorded as well.

At the moment, there is nothing Baltimoreans can do to stop the remainder of the pilot from continuing. A U.S. District Court judge allowed the pilot to go forward in April, but that decision is being appealed by the ACLU, with a court hearing likely later this summer. The ACLU argues that Baltimore’s aerial surveillance pilot program poses a long-term threat, whatever the current limited-scope guarantees. “Although there are no indications that the BPD has used this program to target particular protesters, it continues to record video of every protester’s daytime movements in Baltimore, in violation of their First Amendment rights,” says Ashley Gorski, staff attorney for the ACLU National Security Project. “We have serious concerns about how it may be used in Baltimore and throughout the country.”

Harrison, not surprisingly, sees things differently. He compares the recordings to smartphones that have been used widely to livestream or record protests and “many other devices and cameras that are being used without regulation.” Unsaid, of course, is that those smartphones are not in the hands of local or federal law enforcement. Still, he assures that the police department intends to stick to the intended purposes in the contract.

In truth, Harrison appears ambivalent about the whole project. About 18 months into the job, after arriving from New Orleans amid high expectations, he has helped reform police department operations, but been unable to curb shootings thus far. Under pressure, like so many other Baltimore leaders, he seems willing to try almost anything, including 40-year-old Cessnas equipped with 21st-century tech. “It’s not a single tool that leads to arrests,” he says. “Sometimes even the best technology just can’t give you what you need. It seems as though it has taken us a long time to get to where we’re using it effectively,” adds Harrison, who initially resisted using the “untested” approach. “We started off with zero expectations. I’m not either happy or sad about the results yet. We’re just waiting to see what the data shows.”

Harrison also admits the program likely is not worth taxpayers funding the hefty price tag, potentially as high as $8 million annually based on the pilot, after the privately-funded pilot program runs out. “It probably would not be supported publicly, because of the dollar amount and its outcomes thus far.”

Meanwhile, on the PSS website, the company is already advertising the program’s efficacy. On its homepage, the “Information on Baltimore” tab links to a “Community Support Program” featuring an image of Baltimore and unproven claims, including “Our program helps law enforcement [in] deterring crimes before they are committed.” Harrison partly opposed the program over the company’s prediction the technology would reduce the city’s “the murder rate by 20 to 30 percent,” and other “unsubstantiated claims.”

In a March virtual community forum, Harrison admitted “the hardest thing to track is deterrence.”

“For me, the planes shouldn’t be there, period,” says Scott, the 36-year-old City Council President, who knows something about experimental policing programs and describes them as a distraction that won’t resolve Baltimore’s wider crime problems. He grew up in Baltimore’s Park Heights neighborhood when the now-controversial Zero Tolerance era of policing launched in the 1990s.“The plane has not been proven to do what they say it’s going to do.”

There are other downsides to aerial surveillance over the city, beyond First and Fourth Amendment issues. Already, some residents have protested the oppressive, unceasingly loud drone when the large Cessna T207 Turbo Stationair 8 with its 300-horsepower engine, flies at 6,000 feet or lower, sometimes due to clouds, other times in fair weather, flight data shows.

Many city residents, particularly in West and East Baltimore have essentially grown up in neighborhoods already surveilled, including the old police “blue light” cameras and now CitiWatch CCTV video cameras and the noisy Foxtrot helicopter, with its high-powered beams. And there are questions to consider about whether constant aerial surveillance is likely to build trust between communities and police—an established key to solving and preventing crime—or erode it further.

There are also considerations about the trauma associated with living under unceasing police surveillance.

Andre Powell of the Peoples Power Assembly helped organize the June 6 march. Wearing a black T-shirt reading “Stonewall still means fight back,” he stepped inside the Tubman center’s small office to talk about the surveillance plane, which has been on his mind.

“Surveillance can create insecurity in the community. I know it. I’ve lived it,” says Powell, who described police helicopters as a constant overhead presence for decades over Black communities in the city, especially during the hot Baltimore summers. “Police say it’s for crime prevention purposes. Now they just have a sanctioned way to track people day after day.”

“You can’t walk down the streets in peace,” he adds, describing one afternoon strolling along St. Paul Street. “A helicopter stopped above me, shining its light down on me, so I looked up to see what they were looking at. And this was in the middle of the day,” he says. Three police cars pulled up. “They asked where I was going and what I was doing. They were looking for a guy in a short gray coat, and I was wearing a long black coat. It was all just because I was Black.”

“It creates a feeling of helplessness, a feeling that you are trapped and constantly being watched, and that creates resentment,” Powell adds. “It’s all part of the constant targeting of people of color that creates resentment that builds up. So we march in the streets.”

Baltimore Senior Editor Ron Cassie edited and contributed to this report.

A crowd of activists toppled the marble Christopher Columbus statue near Little Italy Saturday night and dumped it into the Inner Harbor amid Fourth of July firework displays across the city.

Two weeks ago, an anti-racist protest group known as Baltimore Bloc publicly warned Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young that activists planned to take down the city’s Columbus monuments if his administration did not act to remove them.

The most prominent of three city monuments to Columbus, the statue at the eastern edge of the Inner Harbor was unveiled by President Ronald Reagan and Mayor William Donald Schaefer in 1984 and dedicated with the inscription to the “Discoverer of America.” The 14-foot statue was paid for by a citywide fundraising campaign led by the Italian American Organizations United of Maryland.

Two years ago year this summer, 19 months after a city commission recommended two of the city’s four Confederate monuments be taken down and two more receive educational plaques, then-Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the removal of all four.

Lester Davis, a spokesman for Young, told the Baltimore Sun that the destruction of Columbus statue is part of a “re-examination taking place nationally and globally around some of these monuments and statues that may represent different things to different people.”

City Council President Brandon Scott, who won last month’s Democratic mayoral primary, issued a statement Saturday night saying he supports both the Baltimore’s Italian-American community and Baltimore’s indigenous community. “I cannot, however, support Columbus,” Scott said.

In 2016, Scott introduced a bill that would’ve renamed Columbus Day in the city to Indigenous Peoples Day. Scott said the intention of the legislation, which did not pass, was “to honor the many peoples inhabiting North America before its colonization by European settlers.”

Scott said he suggested to former Mayor Catherine Pugh that she remove the Columbus statue along with the city’s Confederate statues following a violent conflict between white supremacists and anti-racism activists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Baltimore City Councilman Ryan Dorsey has introduced a bill that would rededicate the Columbus obelisk at Herring Run to the victims of police brutality.

In a statement Sunday, Governor Larry Hogan condemned the destruction of the Columbus statue and said Baltimore leaders had lost “control of the city and their own streets.”

“While we support peaceful protests and constructive dialogue on whether and how to put certain monuments in context or move them to museums or storage through a legal process, lawlessness, vandalism, and destruction of public property are completely unacceptable,” Hogan said. “That is the antithesis of democracy and should be condemned by everyone, regardless of their politics. Baltimore City leaders need to regain control of their own streets and immediately start making them safer.”

Several state delegates representing Baltimore County and Harford County and a group of Italian-American activists demanded Young and Hogan protect the city’s statues and monuments erected to honor Christopher Columbus at a June 29 press conference at the Inner Harbor.

In a tweet Saturday night, Del. Kathy Szeliga called the pulling down of the Columbus memorial on July 4 “shameful,” and asked where the police and Mayor Young were while the statue was being toppled. She suggested citizens, “move out of Baltimore City while you can if you still live there.”

“This is deeply personal and an affront to the Italian American community and all law-abiding Marylanders,” tweeted State Del. Nino Mangione, a Republican from Baltimore County. “The city of Baltimore has been disgraced once again. America weeps at this outrage.”

Baltimore’s annual October Columbus Day Commemoration and Italian Heritage Festival and parade, approaching 130 years, is believed to be the longest-running celebration in honor of Columbus in the country.

In his speech on July 4, President Donald Trump pledged to “defend, protect, and preserve American way of life, which began in 1492 when Columbus discovered America.”

The Italian-born explorer’s legacy has received increased scrutiny in recent decades as his brutal treatment of the native people of the Caribbean islands and Central America—including mass slaughter, forced mining, enslavement, and child rape—has become better known and understood.

Popular myths regarding Columbus, long taught in schools, have also been exposed by scholars, changing public perception of the nature of his voyages. Columbus did not prove the “flat Earth” theory wrong. Nor was Columbus the first European to sail to the continent, as Scandinavians sailors had done so centuries earlier. Those beliefs and others took hold in the United States after acclaimed writer Washington Irving popularized an “Americanized” Columbus in a best-selling fictionalized historical biography in 1828.

With the pulling down of the statue, Baltimore joins a growing list of cities this summer, including Richmond, Montgomery, Boston, and St. Paul, that have witnessed the toppling of Confederate and Columbus memorials. Numerous cities across the country have made plans to remove statues.

Several state delegates and a group of Italian-American activists demanded Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young and Gov. Larry Hogan protect the city’s statues and monuments erected to honor Christopher Columbus at a press conference Friday in Harbor East.

Last week, an anti-racist protest group known as Baltimore Bloc took to Twitter to publicly warn Young that activists planned to remove the city’s Columbus monuments if he did not.

Baltimore has three monuments dedicated to Columbus. One currently sits in a fenced construction area at Druid Hill Park. A second monument in northeast Baltimore’s Herring Run—believed to be the first erected to the Genoa-born explorer in the U.S.—was severely damaged as an act of protest three years ago. And the most prominent city monument to Columbus is the massive marble statue in Harbor East, which was formally unveiled by President Ronald Reagan and then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer in 1984 and dedicated with the inscription to the “Discoverer of America.”

“The decision to take down statutes on public lands must be made by the public through a thoughtful process,” said Republican Del. Kathy Szeliga, who represents Baltimore and Harford counties and served as one of the organizers of the press conference. “Vigilante groups cannot be permitted to pick and choose what stays and what goes. Any removal of public statues on public lands requires a public process with public input. Until this process can be established, we are asking the Governor and the Mayor to protect these statues and monuments from vandalism, destruction, and removal.”

State Del. Nino Mangione, a Republican from Baltimore County, had a more succinct message for anti-Columbus activists: “If you don’t like or appreciate Christopher Columbus, don’t visit this statue. Stay the hell away from it.”

Mangione said that if “the Mayor does not do his job [protecting the statue], the Governor should immediately step in with the National Guard.” In the meantime, Mangione said, 24-hour private surveillance would begin.

“Italian Americans have rights, too,” he said. “We do not scream the loudest and we do not complain the most, but we still have rights.”

Also on hand supporting the call to protect the city’s Columbus statues were Republican state Sen. Johnny Ray Salling, former Baltimore County Republican delegate Pat McDonough, and former Baltimore City Democratic state Sen. John Pica Jr.—who serves as event chairman of Little Italy’s annual Columbus Day commemoration.

The warning from anti-racist protestors to Mayor Young about pulling down the city’s monuments to Columbus comes as more activists—as well as cities, states, and institutions—are pulling down statues of both Columbus and Confederate generals. On the heels of the Charlottesville, Virginia tragedy—in which a protestor was killed by a white supremacist who drove his car into a crowd—then-Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the removal of Baltimore’s four Confederate statues, without any advanced notice, to diffuse any potential conflicts between anti-racist activists, white supremacists, and the city police.

A recent change.org petition was started to replace a statue of Columbus in Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood with one honoring Ettore Boiardi, also known as “Chef Boyardee,” who immigrated to the United States in 1914 and opened his first restaurant in Cleveland.

The mayor of Columbus, Ohio, once again under pressure from protesters, has announced the city’s most prominent statue of Christopher Columbus would be taken down “as soon as possible.”

In Saint Paul, Minnesota, demonstrators brought down a Columbus statue that stood in front of the state capitol. In Richmond, Virginia, protesters toppled a Columbus statue in Byrd Park that had been dedicated in 1927, and then set it on fire and threw it into a nearby lake. In Boston, a marble statue of the explorer and colonizer was beheaded. In Chicago this summer, protestors defaced two statues of Columbus and have faced off with Italian Americans determined to protect the monuments, which they say represent their ethnic pride.

Last week, City Councilman Ryan Dorsey introduced a bill that would rededicate the Columbus obelisk at Herring Run to the victims of police brutality.

“You do not heal racial wounds and injustices by targeting another historic minority,” Mangione said. “The statues honoring Christopher Columbus do so much more than honor one man. They recognize the thousands of Italian-Americans and their contributions to this city, our state, and this nation. You cannot use discrimination and prejudice to fight discrimination and prejudice.”

Columbus’s legacy has become more troubled in recent decades as the brutal treatment of the Native Americans he and his men encountered in the Caribbean islands and Central America—including mass slaughter, enslavement, and child rape—has become better and more widely understood. Columbus’s record as a tyrant also includes forcing indigenous people to mine for gold. For Native Americans, Columbus’s arrival highlights the beginning of a centuries-long genocide. For many African Americans, the enslavement of Native Americans, including the 1,500 people Columbus bonded and sent to Spain for sale—presages the start of the Transatlantic slave trade.

Popular myths about Columbus and the nature of his voyages, long taught in U.S. schools, have been increasingly exposed by scholars and presented in the media, changing public perception of him. Columbus did not, for example, prove the “flat Earth” theory wrong. Nor was Columbus the first European to sail to the continent, as Scandinavians sailors had done so centuries earlier. Those beliefs and others took hold in the U.S. only after writer Washington Irving popularized an “Americanized” Columbus in a best-selling fictionalized historical biography in 1828.

Baltimore’s annual October Columbus Day Commemoration and Italian Heritage Festival and parade, approaching 130 years, is also believed to be the longest-running commemoration in the country to honor Columbus in the U.S.

Pica, the former state Senator joining the call for protecting the Columbus monuments, acknowledged the statue likely will be removed at some future date, if not by activists, by the next mayoral administration and city council. But he doesn’t want to see it vandalized or destroyed.

He noted that City Council President Brandon Scott, who won the recent Democratic mayoral primary, introduced a bill in 2016 that would’ve renamed Columbus Day in the city to Indigenous Peoples Day. The intention of the bill, Scott said, was “to honor the many peoples inhabiting North America before its colonization by European settlers.”

“We shouldn’t celebrate terrorists,” Scott said of the bill at the time. “That’s what celebrating Christopher Columbus does. Very rarely do we have a chance to correct the wrongs of history. This is about Christopher Columbus. This is not anything against Italian-Americans.”

Referencing Dorsey’s recent bill to rededicate the Columbus obelisk to the victims of police brutality and Scott’s earlier holiday renaming legislation, Pica said, “We are going to celebrate Columbus Day no matter what.”

After the initial round of ballot tallying last week, 36-year-old City Council President Brandon Scott rallied as mail-in votes were counted over the past several days—pulling out a close victory over former Mayor Sheila Dixon in the Democratic primary for mayor, according to results posted Tuesday night.

In a crowded field with 24 candidates receiving votes, Scott won 29.4 percent of the tally. Dixon claimed 27.7 percent of the ballots cast—a margin of 2,358 votes. The final count remains unofficial and is not expected to be certified before Friday. Roughly 2,000 ballots remain outstanding.

Dixon, 66, also a former city council president, became Baltimore’s first female mayor in 2007 after Martin O’Malley was sworn in as governor. She resigned as part of a plea deal after being charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors, including theft, perjury, and misconduct in office.

Scott will face Republican Shannon Wright, a nonprofit executive, in this fall’s general election. With a nearly 10-1 Democratic to Republican Party registration advantage in the city, Scott’s victory is all but assured in November.

“Tonight, we celebrate a hard-fought victory for the future of Baltimore,” Scott said in a statement. “From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank my family, my team, our volunteers, those who voted for a new way forward for Baltimore, and everyone who believes change is not just possible, but long overdue. Our city stands at a crossroads. Baltimore will only move forward as a city united, not divided. It will take all of us to build a city that is safe, equitable, and accountable. As a son of Baltimore, I could not be more honored to lead our great city in this critical moment and carry the work forward with you.”

Here are five things to know about Scott:

The City Council Elected Him as President Following Catherine Pugh’s Resignation

The city council elected Scott its president after Bernard C. “Jack” Young ascended to the mayor’s office following former Mayor Catherine Pugh’s resignation in the wake of the Healthy Holly children’s book scandal. Scott prevailed after a weekend-long, behind-closed-doors fight with Young’s chosen successor—Council Vice President Sharon Green Middleton. Initially, it appeared that neither Scott nor Middleton had the votes to prevail, but when the scales tipped in Scott’s favor, council members ultimately supported him 14-0.

He Was One of the Youngest Candidates Elected to Citywide Office

A subject in 2018’s well-received documentary Charm City, Scott was one of the youngest candidates ever elected to citywide office at 27. After growing up in Park Heights, he graduated from Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, where he ran track and cross country, and then studied political science at St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland. He got his start in politics as a liaison in the office of then-City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who later became mayor. Scott will be significantly younger than the age of the average U.S. mayor—which is 56, according to a recent study. But the ambitious Scott would be the same age as Martin O’Malley when O’Malley ran for mayor and with several more years of elected experience. He lives in the city’s Frankford Neighborhood.

He Has a Diverse Coalition of Support

In mid-May, a Baltimore Sun, WYPR, and the University of Baltimore poll showed Scott was the only major mayoral candidate with near equal support among both black (16 percent) and white (17 percent) voters. Scott, who also had a diverse coalition of support, led among voters younger than 35 and also younger than 50. His late voting surge in ballots arriving in the final days before the June 2 postmark deadline indicate that he continued to win support as he marched with protestors in the city following the death of George Floyd. “I can talk young, old; rich, poor; white, black; gay, straight; trap house, board room,” Scott told the Baltimore Fishbowl following that poll. “No one else can do that in this race. No one else has that flexibility in this race.”

He Supports Defunding the Police

Scott was widely viewed as the most progressive of the top-tier candidates in the race. He has pushed for reforms that would curtail some of the power of inherit in Baltimore’s strong mayor even as he ran for the office. As the chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee from 2016 until he became city council president, Scott advocated a holistic approach to crime reduction and for Baltimore police department reform. He co-founded the anti-violence group 300 Men March and is close to Ceasefire co-founder Erricka Bridgeford. “Baltimore must re-allocate its budget away from the current dependence on the police department,” Scott tweeted this week. “We must diversify our investments into agencies that focus on proactively developing our young people and communities.”

He Passed Groundbreaking Legislation Advocating for Racial Equity

Scott previously served as a member of the Budget and Appropriations and Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committees. In 2018, he introduced and passed groundbreaking legislation that created an equity assessment program in Baltimore that requires all city agency decisions—and their operating budgets, capital budgets, and proposed legislation—to be weighed through an equity lens.

Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott passed former mayor Sheila Dixon by ever-so-slightly a margin Sunday night as mail-in votes continued to be counted over the weekend in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary.

Scott, who had been trailing Dixon since polls closed last Tuesday, now leads by 388 votes, according to the latest results posted by the State’s Board of Elections late Sunday. In a crowded field with 23 candidates garnering votes, Scott’s tally has moved up to 28.7 percent of the votes with Dixon’s slipping support now at 28.4 percent.

Stefanie Mavronis, director of communication in the city council president’s office, told Baltimore Sunday evening that an estimated 15,000-20,000 votes still remain uncounted. She said the hope is that mail-in vote counting will be completed by end of day Tuesday.

The 36-year-old Scott, a Park Heights native, received the endorsement of the Baltimore Sun’s editorial board. A presence at protests and marches throughout the city since the death of unarmed George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis, Scott continues to benefit from an upsurge in support among those casting later ballots.

Dixon, who pled guilty to embezzlement and was forced to resign from the mayor’s office amid a cloud of corruption dating back to her term as city council president, led by a slim margin in several polls leading up to the election.

A significantly smaller number of in-person polling places were open last Tuesday as a precaution against COVID-19.

City mail ballots were required to be postmarked by June 2 or placed in local ballot drop boxes by 8 p.m. on that date. The state had already postponed its April 28 primary to June 2 as part of a series of actions to protect residents from the coronavirus pandemic. State Board of Elections staff have also been putting the paper mail-in ballots in “quarantine” for 24 hours as a precaution against the virus.

U.S. Treasury Department official Mary Miller, who has never held elected office, currently sits in third place, with 15.5 percent of the vote. Former state Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah is in fourth at 11.4 percent. Incumbent Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young has pulled just 6.4 percent of the tally, and former police spokesman T.J. Smith has 5.9 percent of the vote.

In the closely watched Democratic primary race for city comptroller, widely respected City Councilman Bill Henry continues to grow his lead over two-decade-plus incumbent Joan Pratt. He now leads 53.9 percent to 46.1 percent, and by nearly 10,000 votes. Pratt has been under fire for her longstanding personal, political, and business relationship with former Mayor Catherine Pugh.

The election of Scott and Henry over Dixon and Pratt would mark a generational change in the city’s leadership, just as the overhaul of the city council did in 2016 after the first election since the death of Freddie Gray while in Baltimore police custody.

In another key race for city council president, Nick Mosby, a former city council member and current state delegate, is assured of winning. Mosby—whose wife, Marilyn Mosby, is the state’s attorney for Baltimore City—has 40.7 percent of the vote so far. Current city council member Shannon Sneed has 28.6 percent of the vote. Former city council member Carl Stokes has 21.6 percent of the tally.

Meanwhile, with Young, Scott, and Henry leaving the city council in pursuit of higher office, as well as the retirements of Mary Pat Clarke and Ed Reisinger, the city council will again undergo another transformation.

Among the new members expected to take office pending the primary certification this week and November’s general election are Danielle McCray, who initially filled Young’s seat when he rose to mayor after Catherine Pugh’s resignation, in the 2nd District; James Torrence in the 7th District; Phylicia Porter in the 10th District; Antonio Glover in the 13th District; and Odette Ramos in the 14th District.

Among current city council members leading by comfortable margins are Zeke Cohen in the 1st District; Ryan Dorsey in the 3rd District; Isaac Schleifer in the 5th District; Sharon Green Middleton in the 6th District; Kristerfer Burnett in the 8th District; John Bullock in the 9th District; Eric Costello in the 11th District; and Robert Stokes Jr. in the 12th District.

This article was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

A U.S. District Court judge is set to rule by Friday on an ACLU lawsuit that seeks to block the Baltimore Police Department from using airborne surveillance images via the city’s controversial Aerial Investigation Research (AIR) pilot program.

Three privately funded planes would fly over Baltimore, up to 84 hours weekly, for six-months under a contract between the Ohio-based Persistent Surveillance Systems and the Baltimore Police Department, beginning in May. The planes, equipped with a sophisticated 192-megapixel full-color camera system (named HawkEye), would capture images of people’s outside movements on Baltimore streets and sidewalks, as well as their own backyards, according to ACLU and police department legal briefs focused on the constitutionality of the program.

The city’s Board of Estimates approved the contract and pilot project now in federal court by a 3-2 vote three weeks ago. Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, who controls the majority of votes on the Board of Estimates, voted to greenlight the initiative. City Council President Brandon Scott, among those running against Young for mayor in upcoming Democratic primary, does not support the surveillance program—or “spy planes”—as the effort is often derided.

The stated objective of the initiative is to help the Baltimore Police Department investigate murders, shootings, armed robberies, and carjackings with collected surveillance images. Baltimore, which has witnessed more than 300 homicides in each of the last five years, is essentially serving as a test case for potentially similar surveillance initiatives in other cities, the ACLU says.

Baltimore City has become a constitutional battleground for national public privacy issues.

The constitutional and civil rights dispute coincides with the fifth anniversary of Freddie Gray’s death from injuries suffered while in police custody on April 19, 2015, with subsequent riots and weeks of protests. The following year, as city anti-police brutality activists protested a not-guilty verdict handed down for police officer Caesar Goodson, Jr.—the driver of the van in which Gray was detained—aerial surveillance was being secretly conducted by the same company and Baltimore Police Department.

That publicly undisclosed program, first reported by Bloomsberg Businessweek after a tweet inquiring about the strange constant circling of planes overhead, was halted in 2016 amid criticism of its secrecy and condemnations from civil liberties advocates who made the case that the system represents a sweeping overreach of surveillance that violates individuals’ rights.

The new effort has already run test flights to collect aerial imagery as part of the program’s restart, court filings show. But the BPD agreed to temporarily suspend any current flights while awaiting the federal ruling expected by the end of this week. Meanwhile, Baltimore City has become a constitutional battleground for national public privacy issues.

If sanctioned by the federal court, Baltimore would become the first U.S. city to formally approve and implement military-style technology known as Wide Area Persistent Surveillance in an effort to fight crime, likely opening the door for further surveillance programs in Baltimore and elsewhere.

“What happens here would set a precedent for what happens in the rest of the nation,” Jay Stanley, a senior ACLU national policy analyst, said during an ACLU virtual press conference earlier this month. “This is one of the biggest privacy issues I’ve seen come down the pike.”

David Rocah, an ACLU of Maryland senior staff attorney, went further, comparing the effort to those found in dystopian novels. “Baltimore’s spy plane program, or Wide Area Persistent Surveillance, is an Orwellian nightmare come to life,” Rocah said.

In a flurry of legal briefs, motions, and responses filed last week, ACLU and Baltimore Police Department lawyers argued whether such aerial surveillance violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, an individual’s right to free speech and assembly, and the Fourth Amendment—primarily the freedom from government searches deemed unreasonable under the law.

Under the proposed pilot, aerial cameras would collect imagery data up to 12 hours a day over “major portions” of the city, weather permitting, with “a resolution of roughly one pixel per person,” according to the BPD. Such images could be checked against other city surveillance technologies, including CitiWatch cameras, license plate readers, and a web of visual data police say could identify the suspects or witnesses present at a crime scene.

Police leaders contend today’s AIR pilot program would ensure privacy limits and transparency, partly via potential “robust independent” evaluations by Morgan State University, the RAND Corporation, and University of Baltimore.

Baltimore’s police department has a documented, long-troubled civil rights history. A U.S. Department of Justice report in 2016 found the BPD engaged in patterns of conduct that violated the Constitution’s First and Fourth Amendments, leading to a consent decree detailing reforms. Such reforms emphasize building a “bond of trust” between the community and police.

Erricka Bridgeford, co-founder of the Baltimore Ceasefire project and a plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit, believes the AIR program would further erode community trust, and that aerial surveillance will hinder community outreach efforts. “[The police department] should not have access to advanced technology,” she said, that creates an opportunity “to violate people’s rights. Also, I think it undermines the work that good officers are trying to do in the community.”

On Tuesday, a Morgan State survey reported city residents’ widespread dissatisfaction with police.

BPD has said the pilot program would comply with the consent decree. Under the contract, Persistent Surveillance Systems will analyze captured images when requested by police for investigations into targeted, violent crimes. Collected images can be scanned backward and forward in time. The BPD says it will not conduct live surveillance day-to-day in coordination with the company operating the planes. That said, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael S. Harrison also has discretion to request data analysis under “extraordinary and exigent” circumstances.

“Though the program’s objectives to reduce crime and violence are laudable, the Constitution dictates that this all-seeing and ever-present ‘eye in the sky’ is not an available solution.”

The ACLU contended in its request for a preliminary injunction earlier this month that the program would create “the most-wide reaching surveillance dragnet ever employed in an American city, giving the BPD a virtual, visual time machine whose grasp no person can escape.”

The century-old civil rights organization said that “though the program’s objectives to reduce crime and violence are laudable, the Constitution dictates that this all-seeing and ever-present ‘eye in the sky’ is not an available solution.”

Baltimore Police Department attorneys have countered by citing past court rulings on aerial photography use in investigations, most from the 1980s prior to recent advances in technologies. In response to the ACLU suit, BPD emphasized program support by several local churches and a city “level of violent crime that has reached tragic proportions,” including 348 homicides in 2019. BPD called the aerial surveillance “simply a creative, technological assist.”

The estimated nearly $3.7 million cost of the pilot would be funded by Arnold Ventures, a limited liability corporation founded by Texas philanthropists John Arnold, a former Enron executive and hedge fund manager, and his wife, attorney Laura Arnold. Future costs or funding support remain unclear.

Former Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon, who is running again for mayor, supports the surveillance plane pilot. Former city police department spokesman T.J. Smith, former state deputy attorney general Thiru Vignarajah, and former U.S. Treasury official Mary Miller—all running for mayor—support the pilot program. The Arnolds have made significant contributions to Vignarajah’s campaign.

“It is not BPD’s burden to show that the AIR program is constitutional at this stage,” Baltimore Police Department attorneys argued in their filing, noting the city is already surveilled by police helicopters, speed and red light cameras, as well as CCTV, CitiWatch, and the private security systems in nearly every neighborhood. “Observations of public movements are expected in Baltimore,” police department attorneys stated. “It cannot be that the public recognizes the abundance of cameras potentially capturing their activities in the public thoroughfare and still maintains a ‘reasonable’ expectation of privacy.”

The ACLU says aerial surveillance that spans up to 90 percent of the city is unique and goes too far.

“Yes, you are traveling public roads, but this program tracks all of it on a widespread scale,” Ashley Gorski, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, said in a recent interview. “The government can do this if it gets a warrant, but there’s no warrant that can be authorized for that kind of collection for 600,000 people in the city.”

“The government is capturing the whole of an individual’s movements,” Gorski continued. “They can capture everything you are doing, exposing the privacy of how you live your life, if you go to the pharmacy or a gay bar or an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.”

“[The government can] capture everything you are doing, exposing the privacy of how you live your life, if you go to the pharmacy or a gay bar or an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.”

On a broader legal scale, the court battle reveals how case law and U.S. Constitution interpretations often lag behind rapidly changing technologies.

Central to the ACLU’s argument is a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court case, Carpenter v. United States, which ruled that police access to a person’s cell phone location data without a warrant violates the Fourth Amendment. The Baltimore Police Department argues that cell phone tracking (via data generated when a mobile phone communicates with a cell tower) is not the same as aerial surveillance. Wide Area Surveillance cameras in general, however, have a range of capabilities, including the ability to capture higher resolution, zoom, and long-term real-time images, as outlined in a U.S. Department of Homeland Security report.

Such technologies can also be used via drones.

The ACLU says it understands crime-fighting concerns, yet also sees widespread potential for abuse.

“The city is fearful, feeling like there are a lack of viable solutions to the crime problem, so people are turning to technology to be a panacea,” Gorski said. “But the costs are far too high.”

J. Cavanaugh Simpson is a freelance journalist based in the Baltimore area. This article was supported in part by a reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center. Simpson can be contacted via Twitter @JoCavanaughSim1.

Former Baltimore City mayor Catherine Pugh was sentenced to three years in prison and three years probation Thursday as a result of conspiracy and tax evasion charges resulting from the sale of her Healthy Holly children’s books. Prosecutors were seeking a five-year sentence, and Pugh faced a maximum of 30 years in prison. Pugh will also be forced to pay restitution to the University of Maryland Medical Center and Maryland Auto Insurance, two of the organizations she sold books to. All copies of Healthy Holly in government custody will be destroyed.

Much has been speculated upon regarding how much time—if any—Pugh would serve in prison, and if the sentence delivered by U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasnow would send a message intended to prevent further political corruption in Baltimore.

“If you hold yourself up to a higher office, you’ve got to hold yourself up to a higher standard,” says Michael B. Runnels, associate professor of law and social responsibility at Loyola University Maryland. “Mayor Pugh is just the latest in a series of mayors who have run afoul in these types of getting a hand caught in the cookie jar dynamic.”

Pugh’s dealings are the latest in a series of corruption scandals involving local officials. In 2017, Gary Brown, a Pugh aide who has also been implicated in the Healthy Holly scandal, was charged with making illegal campaign contributions. In 2018, former Maryland senator Nathaniel Oaks was sentenced to three and half years in prison on corruption charges. Earlier this year, Tawanna Gaines, a former Maryland state lawmaker, was sentenced to six months in prison for wire fraud. Also earlier this year, Cheryl Glenn, a former Balitmore state delegate, pled guilty to taking bribes for political favors.

“It gets exhausting to see this unrelenting negative press in Baltimore,” Runnels says. “It’s almost like we take one step forward and two steps back.”

When asked his thoughts on Pugh’s sentencing earlier this week, Baltimore mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young offered no comment. In a statement, City Council President Brandon Scott did not specifically share his thoughts on Pugh’s sentencing, but offered that the occasion marked “an opportunity to move forward” for her and the city.
But in the past several weeks, local politicians including Kweisi Mfume, who recently won the Democratic nomination to succeed Congressman Elijah Cummings, and friends of the mayor, like former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke, have requested leniency for Pugh. On the eve of the sentencing, Pugh’s lawyers released a 13-minute video in which she asks for forgiveness. At the sentencing hearing, they referenced Pugh’s public service to Baltimore and dedication to the city as reasons why she should not receive heavy prison time.

But in issuing her verdict, Chasanow sent a clear message that the extent and depth of Pugh’s crimes warranted multiple years of prison time.

“Public corruption should be treated with great scrutiny and seriousness,” says Roger Hartley, the dean of College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore. “Especially in a situation like this where there was some real forethought behind selling books to large donors who might then be in a position for currying favor for contracts later with the city.”

Pugh’s sentencing wraps up an almost year-long saga, as The Sun first reported on the scandal in March of 2019. For Hartley, the conclusion of the former mayor’s trial marks the closing of a chapter, as the city looks forward toward a mayoral election.

“After this decision, so many people in the city want to move forward with a strong new mayor and a strong government that is transparent, legitimate, and trustworthy,” he says. “I think that’s what the voters, businesses, and citizens of this city are looking for right now.”

Throughout the recent discussions surrounding the redevelopment of Lexington Market, led by Baltimore-based development firm Seawall, preserving its integrity and ensuring the safety of the community have been at the forefront. The longest continually running market in the United States has remained open—and will remain open during construction—in the midst of considerations about its next chapter.

That journey will officially begin with a groundbreaking ceremony featuring remarks by Governor Larry Hogan and Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young on Tuesday, February 18.

At the most recent in a series of public meetings in the market’s arcade building last week, city leaders and developers gave a status update on the project to 150 attendees. A panel featuring members of law enforcement and government officials, including councilman Eric Costello and City Council President Brandon Scott, addressed streetscape safety, environmental concerns, and stakeholders’ plans to tackle these issues.

“There’s fear and hope in the community,” says Pickett Slater Harrington, head of Seawall’s community engagement team who served as the meeting’s moderator. “There is this fear of things changing. Lexington Market has been around for 230 years, and it’s personal to people and part of the fabric of Baltimore.”

The transformation of Lexington Market is a $40 million dollar project funded by New Market Tax Credits, bank loans, city grants, and a $2 million contribution from the market itself. Plans call for a new market building constructed on the current south parking lot, the demolition of the arcade building to pave the way for a pedestrian plaza on Lexington Street, and the salvaging of the East Market in a phase two redevelopment. The current structure will remain open during renovations and the full revamp is slated to be completed by 2021.

At last week’s meeting, attendees submitted comment cards with pressing questions such as how to combat potential crime, create sustainable change in safety measures, and curb drug dealing in the area. The common thread of city leaders’ answers to these questions was a need for collaboration.

“Lexington Market is a Baltimore asset,” Slater Harrington says. “To have city leadership sit here and say that they’re invested in Lexington Market is huge symbolically. That’s important in developing a vision for an institutional icon.”

City leaders were also asked to share their vision for the market. Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young harkened back to memories of visiting the market in its “glory days” with his grandmother. Major Daryl Gaines, Commanding Officer of the Baltimore Police Department’s Central District, evoked Disney World in describing the type of attraction the market could become for locals and outside visitors.

Creating this type of environment is a multifaceted process, but it will perhaps be most defined by the vendors that inhabit the space.

“This is one of the most diverse communities in Baltimore City,” says Kristen Mitchell, executive director of Market Center Merchants Association, a nonprofit that promotes commerce and works to attract businesses in a 27-block area around Lexington Market. “We want to make sure that the vendors reflect that diversity.”

The vendor selection process will begin in March with two rounds of applications to fill the 60 permanent slots available. Seawall has said that it will place an emphasis on highlighting businesses run by women and those from African American and immigrant communities. Slater Harrington adds there will be three different types of vendors, including those who offer fresh food and produce, prepared food stalls, and specialty retail. Applications are open to anyone interested, and current vendors still in operation will have the opportunity to opt-in.

“Existing vendors love the market, and they’re ready for us to invest in them,” Slater Harrington says. “They’ve been with the market in its ups and downs—everything that we’re creating for the new market, we’re creating as a support system for those existing businesses so they can transition and move into the market.”

From the merchants’ perspective, Robert Thomas, executive director for Baltimore Public Markets, says that vendors are most concerned about the timeline moving forward and whether or not they will be accepted into the new building once it’s complete.

“Change is not something that people look forward to,” Thomas says. “[Some merchants] have routines that they’ve been in for 15 or 20 or 30 years, and it’s worked for them. This is a different animal now. We’re really trying to manage the transition so that people land on their feet or at least know in which direction they’re headed.”

Thomas also says that the renovation and subsequent opening of the new market could be a natural marker for longtime vendors to step aside. “There is a natural attrition we expect to take place,” he says.

As for the immediate future, following the groundbreaking ceremony next week will be the next quarterly meeting centered around community programming and preserving the market’s history in three months.

“Baltimore as a city is at a decision point,” Slater Harrington says. “We’re deciding what type of city we’re going to be. Are we going to be a city with opportunity and access to some, or a city with opportunity and access for all? We’re thinking about that every day in every decision that we make with Lexington Market.”

At a fundraising event for presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg in Baltimore Thursday night, the chatter couldn’t help but revert to Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. Neal Naff, the chief of the Department of Neurosurgery at LifeBridge Health, and Nathan Hubler, hosted the event at their home. In his opening remarks, Naff brought up the team’s game against the New York Jets, and at the end of the proceedings, Buttigieg was presented with a Lamar Jackson jersey, per a pool report.

As he gains momentum in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, Buttigieg made his first visit as a presidential candidate to Baltimore, where he gave a shortened version of his stump speech and answered questions from supporters who met a threshold donation ($500 – $2,800) to attend.

The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, as well as the one of the first openly gay people run for President—Fred Karger ran as a Republican in 2012 and was the first—has received endorsements from prominent Maryland delegates including Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore City 43rd) and Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City’s 46th), who are both members of and strong advocates for the LGBTQ community locally. Clippinger was in attendance at the event, as was state delegate and Marine veteran and Patrick Young (D-Baltimore County 44th).

Former state Democratic chairwoman Susan W. Turnbull has also been a Buttigieg supporter for several months, as has Delegate Kirill Reznik (D-Montgomery 39th).

“Several current and former elected officials have endorsed Pete and there is a vibrant community of volunteers across the state who have been holding debate watch parties, other ‘PeteUps’ and representing Pete at community events,” Turnbull told the Sun.

At the event, Buttigieg was asked about how his policies will help Baltimore. According to the pool report, he said it will be helpful to have, “a mayor’s eye view in the White House,” referring to Washington, D.C.’s proximity to Baltimore.

In the same answer, Buttigieg mentioned his Frederick Douglass Plan to dismantle systemic racism. The plan is described by his campaign website as “a comprehensive and intentional dismantling of racist structures and systems combined with an equally intentional and affirmative investment of unprecedented scale in the freedom and self-determination of Black Americans.” One of the main tenets of the plan, Buttigieg explained, is criminal justice reform.

“Criminal justice reform is imperative,” he said Thursday. “But we can’t get traction on that if we’re not also talking about issues of economic empowerment. And it’s hard to talk about that without talking about education, which is why I need to be supporting HBCUs. And dealing with education, in particular segregation in education, is partly a function of housing.”

Morgan State University and Coppin State University, both Baltimore HBCUs, would figure to benefit from such support.

Reducing crime is also a major part of City Council President Brandon Scott’s mayoral campaign platform—he was among the approximatelty 140 people in attendance, according to Baltimore Brew—as it is for many other city leaders. Scott asserts that “every city agency has a role to play in addressing the disease of gun violence in our city.”

Buttigieg is in favor of major gun legislation, including establishing a nationwide gun licensing system and resuming federal funding for gun violence research. Buttigieg asserted at the event that there is an American majority on the issue when it comes to gun law reform.

When the Buttigieg fundraising event was first announced, the Baltimore fundraiser was initially closed to reporters. But recent calls from Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren, as well as questions from the press about opening up campaign fundraising events ushered in a change of course this week and pool reporters now are being allowed at most events. Buttigieg also agreed to release a list of his “bundlers,” groups of people who work to gather money for campaigns through means like phone calls and recruiting.

Buttigieg has emerged as a prominent candidate over the past several months. Among his clearest positions are abolishing the electoral college and restructuring the Supreme Court to include 15 members—five more chosen by the other 10. He opposes the death penalty and private prisons, and on the economic side, he has endorsed efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15.

Buttigieg ended his remarks asking everyone to “spread his message and hope.”

Mike Miller, the longest serving president of the Senate in Maryland history, announced Thursday that he is stepping down after 33 years due to health issues. Miller, who will be 77 by the start of the next legislative session in January, has been battling prostate cancer for more than a year.

Cantankerous, charismatic, stubborn, and generous by turn, Miller wielded power in the Maryland General Assembly perhaps like no other before him. First elected to state Senate in 1975, he rose to president of the Senate in 1987, and ultimately dominated the state legislative process across the tenures of five governors.

At a press conference, Miller said he will continue to represent his district, which includes parts of Prince George’s, Calvert, and Charles counties while he continues treatment.

Baltimore state Senator Bill Ferguson, 36, was unanimously tapped by his Democratic colleagues—who hold a sizable advantage in the legislature—to succeed Miller as their leader. With Baltimore County state Del. Adrienne Jones rising to Speaker of the House of Delegates earlier this year—the first African American and woman to hold that role—the youthful Ferguson’s ascension marks a significant course change in leadership in Annapolis. And, perhaps, a shift in political power in the General Assembly by back toward the state’s largest city.

Jones succeeded deceased House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch, who had held the position for nearly a decade and a half, in April. A former teacher and coach, Busch was considered the kinder and gentler of the “Two Mikes,” as Miller and Busch came to be known. Busch passed away in office at the end of the last General Assembly following a long illness and liver transplant.

Baltimore has lost notable sway in Annapolis over the past several decades as the city’s population dwindled. The combination of Ferguson and Jones now holding both top positions in the General Assembly could change that perception.

Miller was not just longest serving president of Senate in Maryland history, but also the longest, current serving state Senate president in the country.

He led the state Senate through the passage of a series of controversial measures in recent years, including a ban on the death penalty, and support for legalized gambling and same-sex marriage, the last of which Miller did not vote for himself, but also did not block from coming to the floor of the General Assembly.

In many ways, Miller remained a politician from a previous era. A voracious reader and student of history, Miller was also a protector of the state Senate and General Assembly traditions. In a profile of Miller several years ago, Barbara Hoffman, a former Democratic senator for Baltimore City and County, told Baltimore, “I think his legacy is to be a model for caring about the institution of the Senate more than any one thing.”

“He is the guardian of the tradition of the Senate,” Montgomery Senator Richard Madaleno, who arrived in Annapolis as a budget analyst in 1989, said in the same 2013 profile, describing Miller as the “pillar” of the Maryland Democratic Party. “He knows how to bring people together to form a majority to get an issue done, whether that’s through humor, through discussion, or through yelling.”

Miller also considers Republican Gov. Larry Hogan a friend. Miller knew Gov. Hogan’s father, a former Prince George’s county executive, and has known the governor almost his whole life—a relationship that has somewhat diffused party tensions in the General Assembly in recent years. Miller’s “steady presence and trademark humor will be deeply missed” as Senate president, Gov. Hogan said in statement. “I have immense respect for Mike Miller,” Hogan added. “For the past year, he has shown all of us what courage and determination look like as he faces a very tough personal battle.”

Meanwhile, local and state elected officials praised the selection of Ferguson, who is more liberal than Miller, generally considered a centrist or conservative Democrat. A former teacher and attorney, Ferguson has been vocal in his support for more public education spending as well as the recent Kirwan Commission recommendations calling significant funding increases for public schools. Hogan has called the Kirwan education spending recommendations “half-baked” and referred to the commission as the “Kirwan Tax Hike Commission, setting up a likely contentious battle in Annapolis during the upcoming General Assembly.

State Sen. Bill Ferguson

City Council President Brandon Scott called Ferguson a “hardworking public servant for the people of the 46th District and for every Baltimorean.”

“He loves our city and he loves our state,” Scott said. “I know he’ll honor our city as President. Senator Ferguson will ensure our greatest resource—our young people—get the resources they need for a quality education, regardless of their zip code.”

Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young highlighted Ferguson’s background in teaching and leading voice for increased funding for public education. “I know that he will be a passionate advocate for our children, and a committed partner as we work together with his colleagues in the legislature to ensure that Kirwan is fully funded,” Young said.

Maryland U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement that’d he’d seen Miller Wednesday night at the Morgan State tribute to Elijah Cummings and that Miller insisted his doctors let him out of the hospital to eulogize Cummings.

“That’s Mike,” Van Hollen said. “Always there for friends; always there for Maryland. Mike Miller has dedicated his life to serving Marylanders and set the gold standard for true leadership in the State Senate. I was proud to serve under him, and to this day appreciate his mentorship and wisdom. His guiding hand will be missed, but I’m confident that Bill Ferguson will serve our state well.”

Baltimore mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young is expected to announce his candidacy for the 2020 mayoral race at 11 a.m. Saturday in Station North.

“I decided I want to run because there’s a lot of things I want to accomplish,” Young told the Baltimore Sun.

Since assuming his role as mayor after Catherine Pugh stepped down amid a growing scandal in May, Young has shepherded the city through a ransomware attack and often spoke glowingly as new recreation centers opened across the city.

A native of East Baltimore, Young has long been a proponent of programs for city youth. He served as president of the Baltimore City Council from 2010 to 2019, and in 2016, the charter amendment he put forward, which established a fund to provide funding for youth services—the first of its kind in Baltimore—was passed overwhelmingly by voters at referendum.

While it remains to be seen what impact a Young campaign will have on stump issues, it’s safe to assume that this is where he will place an emphasis. His biography page on the Baltimore City government website touts him as a “proponent of affordable housing and mixed-use development,” explaining that he “believes neighborhood development is the key to increasing Baltimore’s population, decreasing vacant homes, and improving its local economy.”

Young had previously said that he would not run for mayor, but reports indicate he started to change his mind this summer. Since stepping into his new role, he has embedded himself into the community at a number of events including the Shake and Bake unveiling last spring and the reopening of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Interestingly, in Young’s first few days as mayor, he made a trip to Annapolis to lay out his ideas and agenda, as well as to appeal to lawmakers for funding. During that trip, he said that his top priority was ensuring that the Preakness remain at Pimlico Race Course. Earlier this month, he got his wish, as a new deal was tentatively struck for massive renovations to usher the track into the 21st century. It’s a deal that is likely to be brought up among his key accomplishments on the 2020 campaign trail.

Young is set to formally announce his run Saturday at the Ynot Lot on North Avenue. In what is expected to be a crowded field, he hopes his name recognition and his time as mayor thus far will serve him well. Other democratic candidates that have announced bids include former prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah and Brandon Scott, who was voted City Council President after Young became mayor.

“I’ve proven I can run the city of Baltimore,” Young told the Sun. “I believe I’m the person to do it.”

Former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro III, brother of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, died at his home in North Baltimore Sunday. He was 90. The cause of death was complications from a stroke.

D’Alesandro III, affectionately known as “Young Tommy,” led City Hall from 1967-1971 and then surprised many by choosing not to run for reelection. His tenure coincided with a tumultuous period in the country that included the 1968 riots in Baltimore—which was already facing the effects of de-industrialization and suburban flight following the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Considered a progressive on the civil rights issues of the day, he was the son of Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., the longtime mayor and congressman known as “Big Tommy” or “Tommy the Elder.” When he was president of the City Council, D’Alesandro III met with King in Baltimore, where the pair discussed civil rights legislation before the council at the time.

“Tommy dedicated his life to our city,” his sister, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement. “A champion of civil rights, he worked tirelessly for all who called Baltimore home. Tommy was a leader of dignity, compassion and extraordinary courage, whose presence radiated hope upon our city during times of struggle and conflict.

“My husband Paul and our entire family are devastated by the loss of our patriarch, my beloved brother,” Pelosi continued, describing her oldest brother as “the finest public servant I have ever known.”

Current Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said D’Alesandro III will be remembered for his commitment to Baltimore and the “important strides” he made while in office, including “creating summer recreation programs for youth, removing racial barriers in employment and education, and laying the groundwork for what would become the world-famous Inner Harbor.”

Current City Council President Brandon Scott said that, as mayor, D’Alesandro III “understood the need to bridge communities and worked to eliminate racial barriers in City Hall.”

“There was absolutely no communication between the races, none whatsoever,” D’Alesandro III told NPR in 2008, describing the time he took office. “It was a segregated city. It was a Southern city.”

After graduating from then Loyola College in Baltimore, D’Alesandro III studied law at the University of Maryland School of Law in the city. He also served in the U.S. Army for four years before running for office. He was elected to the City Council in 1962, and the president of the Baltimore City Council in 1963. When he ran for mayor in 1967, he bested fellow attorney and eventual Orioles owner Peter Angelos in the Democratic primary.

D’Alesandro III appointed George Russell as his city solicitor, and Russell became the first black member of the Board of Estimates. He named Roland Patterson the first black superintendent of the city school system and appointed Baltimore’s first African-American, Rev. Marion Bascomb, to the city’s Board of Fire Commissioners.

“I know he was disappointed by the effect of the riots on what we were trying to do,” Joseph Lee Smith, a black member of D’Alesandro III’s staff, told The Baltimore Sun in 1998. “But I never noticed him being despondent. In the three and a half years that followed, I thought he was very determined and effective in getting the poverty programs in place.”

D’Alesandro III was preceded in office by Republican Theodore McKeldin, considered a liberal, and succeeded in office by William Donald Schaefer.

“We were trying to do it all—improve schools, housing, community development, policing,” Kalman R. “Buzzy” Hettleman, an assistant to D’Alesandro III, told Baltimore magazine last year. “Drugs weren’t a big issue, but policing was. [Donald] Pomerleau was the commissioner, and he was a controversial figure. Gruff. The mayor was under great pressure to appoint an African-American police commissioner [which didn’t happen until 1984 with Bishop Robinson].”

Robert Embry, president of the Abell Foundation, had been appointed by D’Alesandro III to head the then-new Department of Housing when the ’68 riots broke out. “So-called ‘blockbusting’ was in full swing in the Northwood and Edmondson Village neighborhoods, and that was a big issue [at the time],” Embry told Baltimore in a 2018 story on the 50th commemoration of the 1968 events.

D’Alesandro inspired many newcomers to city politics, City Councilman Bill Henry noted in Facebook post, including Henry’s father, a then-26-year-old activist whom the mayor named his youth coordinator and placed on his senior staff. “Looking back on the mayors of my lifetime, ‘Young Tommy’ stands out as having recognized the importance of all young people, especially in terms of their ability to move society forward when properly motivated,” Henry said.

His decision not to seek reelection, D’Alesandro III maintained, was not based on his experience dealing with the riots that broke out four months after his inauguration. Rather, he said it was largely an economic decision—he couldn’t afford to raise his five children while taking home $695 every two weeks.

He also admitted, however, that he did not love the job and public life the way his father did. He spent the rest of his career as a private practice attorney while remaining an informal political advisor to several local officials, including former Mayor Martin O’Malley.

His father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., served in Congress from 1939 to 1947, and then as mayor of Baltimore from 1947 to 1959. His mother, Anunciata “Nancy,” née Lombardi, D’Alesandro was an effective political organizer and helped him become Baltimore’s first Catholic mayor.

Recently, a D’Alesandro family portrait—painted when D’Alesandro III and Pelosi were still children and their father was assuming office in City Hall—has been restored and hung in Germano’s Piattini, the popular Little Italy restaurant across the street from their family’s rowhouse.

Last week, Baltimore also lost Congressman Elijah Cummings, a close colleague of Nancy Pelosi, who passed away at age 68.

When D’Alesandro III married Margaret “Margie” Piracci on June 8, 1952, some 5,000 people turned out to witness the occasion at the Baltimore Basilica. The fire department had to turn even more people way and two women reportedly fainted.

According to reporting from The Sun, the pope sent his blessings, President Harry Truman sent a silver tray as a wedding present, D’Alesandro III’s father, then mayor, served as best man, and his youngest sibling Nancy, later Nancy Pelosi, was a bridesmaid. It’s been said that it was as close to royal wedding as Baltimore has experienced.

“His life and leadership were a tribute to the Catholic values with which we were raised: faith, family, patriotism,” said Pelosi, who grew up with her brother and family in Baltimore’s Little Italy. “He profoundly believed, as did our parents, that public service was a noble calling and that we all had a responsibility to help others.”

City Council President Brandon Scott announced his 2020 bid for mayor Friday in the Park Heights neighborhood where he grew up, making an urgent case for top-to-bottom change in city government.

Scott, who said he was “tired of seeing the tears of young people who’d lost their classmates” to gun violence, was introduced by Cease Fire founder Erricka Bridgeford. “We must stop the bleeding and address the root causes of gun violence,” the 35-year-old Scott told those gathered. “Baltimore needs a mayor invested in the people of this city, not the status quo.”

In his 10-minute address, Scott reiterated recent proposals and pledges to bring professionalism to city government. “Every agency will be held to performance measures,” Scott said. “There will be a focus on resolving 311 issues.”

By declaring his candidacy, Scott became first elected leader to make a formal entry into the race, which many observers predict will eventually come down to a two-person generational battle between the council president and Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, who has given indications he will run, but has not yet declared his intention to seek Baltimore’s highest office next year.

Young, the former council president, became Baltimore’s 51st mayor following former Mayor Catherine Pugh’s resignation earlier this year when she came under fire—and investigation—after receiving more than $800,000 in questionable deals from her Healthy Holly children’s book series. Young had tried to get the council to name Councilwoman Sharon Middleton as his council president successor, but Scott outmaneuvered her for the necessary votes. Young and Scott have been viewed as potential 2020 mayoral rivals ever since with occasional tensions spilling out in public view.

Former Mayor Sheila Dixon, former Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith, state Sen. Jill Carter, state Sen. Mary Washington, and state Del. Nick Mosby are said to be considering a bid for mayor as well. Former Democratic candidate for governor, Ben Jealous, recently told the Baltimore Sun he has ruled out a run for mayor, but is considering running for state’s highest office again. Twelve candidates, none currently elected officials, including four Republicans, have declared themselves candidates for mayor with the State Board of Elections.

First elected at 27, Scott, a subject in last year’s well-received documentary Charm City, was one of the youngest candidates ever elected to citywide office. After growing up in Park Heights, he graduated from Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School and then studied political science and graduated from St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland. He got his start in politics as a liaison in the office of then-City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

He previously served as chair of the council’s high-profile Public Safety Committee and co-founded the anti-violence group 300 Men March. He has also served as a member of the Budget and Appropriations and Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committees.

Earlier this summer, Scott unveiled a detailed, 29-page legislative and policy proposal highlighting his vision for improving city government, making communities safer, investing in youth, and bringing an equitable framework to governance. He essentially announced his bid with the release of a campaign video earlier this week.

If elected, Scott would be significantly younger than the average U.S. mayor—56, according to a recent study. But the ambitious Scott would be the same age as Martin O’Malley, another ambitious former councilman, when O’Malley ran for mayor and actually possesses several more years of elected experience.

“Brandon is hard-working, there’s no doubt about that, he’s smart, and capable,” former 1st District City Councilman James Kraft, told Baltimore this spring, adding he was not making an endorsement, but expressed confidence in his former colleague’s ability to handle the city’s top job. “He’d also surround himself with smart, good people.”

Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott edged out the kids wearing purple Charm City Games t-shirts in two different foot races at Canton Waterfront Park Monday, but given that Scott is a former track athlete, they were perhaps a bit closer than he would’ve liked. It’s this type of friendly competition that the Charm City Games hopes to foster in its inaugural year.

“We know that you learn so much through competition and athletics about life,” Scott says. “It’s great to have this happen across the city during summertime, put teams together, make sure that kids are meeting kids from other parts of town—something that doesn’t always happen in Baltimore—and get young people outside their neighborhoods. This city and all spaces in the city belong to them.”

The Games include different sports for kids ages 12 to 14, from basketball and tennis to track and field, and many more. The Games, currently in progress and lasting until July 20, bring together athletes from districts across the city to compete for team and individual honors. They were born out of a smaller initiative that Baltimore City Recreation and Parks director Reginald Moore created in Macon, Georgia—which was a way to get kids from all different areas active and bring them together.

“We want to get our kids out and engaged,” Moore says. “We want our kids exposed to many unique different opportunities and teams and to bring them together from different communities. Sports teaches the kids discipline.”

The Games are led by coaches from within the Rec and Parks departments, as well as volunteers from across the city. Many of these community leaders have their own experiences with athletics, and the hope is that they’ll be able to impart some wisdom on the competitors in their respective sports. Those in charge recognize competition as a unique mechanism to teach kids life lessons from an early age, something Moore acknowledges was top of mind when planning this event. “We want to develop their life skills to let them know that sometimes you may not win, but being a good sport is important too,” he says.

As for the future, Scott and Moore hope to have an overwhelming number of kids competing, to the point where there might even be tryouts to make a team. Moore has his designs set on potentially sending a Baltimore team to future International Children’s Games in Hungary in 2020 or Seoul in 2021. Overall, though, the goal to reach as many kids as possible remains the same. Organizers also feel it’s important to meld community and competition together to create something that is wholly positive and becomes something to look forward to for years to come.

“This event is something we’ve talked about for a long time,” Scott says. “This is the true show of what young people in Baltimore do each and every day. They’re just trying to be kids, grow, have fun, and have success in athletics and academics. We want to show everyone who doubts Baltimore, and specifically who doubt the young people of Baltimore, what they’re really about.”

The upheaval at City Hall following former Mayor Catherine Pugh’s resignation last week continued Monday night, with now former 2nd District Councilman Brandon Scott earning a promotion from his colleagues to City Council president.

As the next in succession, Bernard C. “Jack” Young, the former council president, officially became Baltimore’s 51st mayor following Pugh’s departure. Pugh, who has not made a public appearance in weeks after taking sick leave April 1, came under fire after receiving more than $800,000 in questionable deals from her Healthy Holly children’s book series.

In the first few days following Young’s ascension to mayor, Scott was essentially locked in a 7-7 stalemate among his City Council colleagues with 6th District member Sharon Green Middleton to succeed Young. Scott, however, won over Ed Reisinger, 69, who represents sections of South and Southwest Baltimore, and Mary Pat Clarke, 77, who represents North and Northeast Baltimore, after reaching out several times to the veteran legislators over the weekend, according to reporting by The Baltimore Sun.

Both Reisinger and Clarke have said they will not be running for reelection in 2020.

Fellow Councilman Bill Henry is planning to officially announce his bid for City Comptroller in June. Altogether, it means more council seats will be up for grabs again after a youthful, majority turnover of the council in 2016.

At the same time, Scott, 35, has all but declared he will run for mayor in 2020.

One Democratic leader, who wished to remain anonymous, told Baltimore magazine the Scott has already signed on with top Maryland fundraising consultant Colleen Martin-Lauer, whose previous clients include former mayors Martin O’Malley and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “At this point, I don’t know what he’s waiting for,” the Democratic official said.

Most likely, it was the opportunity to assume the mantle of City Council president, add the title and experience to an already solid resume—and bask in the support of fellow Democratic leaders in the City.

Scott, who grew up in Park Heights, graduated from Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, where he ran track. He studied political science and graduated from St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland and then got his start in politics as a liaison in the office of then-City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

First elected at 27, one the youngest ever elected to citywide office, Scott serves as chair of the City Council’s high-profile Public Safety Committee and co-founded the anti-violence group 300 Men March. He also is a member of the Budget and Appropriations and Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committees.

Scott would be significantly younger than the average U.S. mayor—56, according to a recent study—should he throw his hat into the ring as expected. But the ambitious Scott would be the same age as Martin O’Malley, another ambitious former councilman, when O’Malley took office and actually possess a few more years of elected office experience.

“Brandon is hard-working, there’s no doubt about that, he’s smart, and capable,” said former 1st District City Councilman James Kraft, who was not making an endorsement, but expressed confidence in his former colleague’s ability to handle the city’s top job. “He’d also surround himself with smart, good people.”

Pugh’s reelection was by no means a done deal before the recent book scandal and FBI and IRS raids. It’s broken wide open now.

Former Deputy Attorney General of Maryland “Thiru” Vignarajah has announced he’s running. Most observers expect former Mayor Sheila Dixon to run again. State Sen. Bill Ferguson and former Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith are said to be considering bids. State Sen. Jill Carter, who proposed the legislation that helped launch the Healthy Holly and University of Maryland Medical System investigation, and state Sen. Mary Washington are two more credible potential candidates.

Then there are folks like business leader David Warnock, former Maryland AG Criminal Division head Elizabeth Warnock, and state Del. Nick Mosby, who all ran in 2016 and could conceivably take another crack.

A potential bid by former NAACP chief Ben Jealous, who won the Democratic nomination for governor and recently bought a house in Baltimore, is also garnering a lot of interest in local Democratic circles.

There is always the chance that Young, who has said he’s not interested in running for mayor, could decide he likes the job of mayor and try to win election to the office.

And that’s just the short list.

Last night, the afterschool program at UA House at Fayette, operated by Living Classrooms, hosted a Youth Talent Showcase to spotlight the talent of young Baltimore City residents. This event was one of more than 8,000 events across the country as part of Lights On Afterschool, an annual nationwide celebration of youth-based programs organized by the Afterschool Alliance.

Children ages 6-20 were invited to perform musical numbers, dances, poetry, and spoken word pieces in front of an audience of their peers, family, and friends for a chance to win the top prize at the end of the night—a $100 cash prize. Jasmine Campbell, director of programming at UA House, says that the kids were looking forward to this from the moment it was announced.

“One of the things about our afterschool program is we are striving to create opportunities for students to explore their talents,” Campbell said. “The goal of the program is to give them the confidence and the tools to learn the things they are interested in.”

The idea for this showcase stemmed from an open mic night that the music director for UA House, Christina Campbell (no relation), hosts each month called Showcase You. All of the kids that participate in the afterschool program through Living Classrooms—and youth in the surrounding community—were able to audition to be a part of this talent show.

“I think part of why we do this also is because it’s an avenue for them to perform their gifts,” Christina said. “We try to engage the community as much as possible, and building awareness around the work that we do. Seeing them all so excited, preparing for it, the confidence from it all—it’s such an amazing thing to witness.”

Lights on Afterschool created the grant that made this showcase possible to highlight the benefits of afterschool programs in a city like Baltimore. This nationwide event is meant to urge lawmakers to support to funding of this type of programming to help disrupt the cycle of violence and poverty.

In keeping with that theme, the planning committee for the event wanted to select a group of judges that were in line with those values. Making the tough decision last night were Living Classrooms CEO James Bond, Councilman Brandon Scott, Deriece PateBennett of PepsiCo, Eean Logn of Baltimore Votes, Stacey Ulrich of Under Armour, and Travis Street of Living Classrooms.

The children were judged based on their creativity, stage presence, execution, and crowd involvement. The judges had a tough decision when it came to selecting winners. Scott said that this decision was harder than approving budgets for the city council.

“This was so hard,” he said. “These kids are much more talented than I ever was at that age. Stuff like this shows that the youth in Baltimore can and will do great things in the world.”

There were a group of young girls who live near the facility in Pleasant View Gardens who called themselves the PVG Girls that took home the first place trophy. They wowed the crowd with a high-energy dance number with some pretty unique moves. Fourth grader Tylor Robinson placed second for his emotional (and adorable) rendition of Bruno Mars’ “If I Were Your Man,” and sixth grader Tony Johnson, Jr. rounded it out in third place with his powerful pipes belting out Adele’s “Someone Like You.”

Aside from the contestants, there were other featured performances by 16-year-old Baltimore rapper Prophet, Living Classrooms UA House Dancers and AMPlified music group, and even a performance by the Baltimore Hawks dance team.

UA House at Fayette, formerly the Carmelo Anthony Center, was re-imagined and reopened in 2016 after an investment from Kevin Plank, Under Armour, and the Baltimore Ravens. The center services more than 300 students daily as a response to the community’s need for intervention that supports the academic and social development of disadvantaged youth in East Baltimore.

“We just really wanted to bring in people who support the work that we do,” Campbell said. “People who have a history of supporting East Baltimore and supporting initiatives that uplift youth and community in Baltimore.”

In everyone’s eyes the event was a success—a packed house of nearly 200 people—and they are eager to plan next year’s event.

“At the end of the day, it’s about giving them the space to showcase their talents in a safe space,” Christina said. “We also want to make sure that people understand the importance of afterschool programs and the effect it has on the development of the youth in the city.”