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Baltimore Adds Audio Recording Devices to Its Buses
Written by Raven Clabough
City officials in Baltimore have established public transportation policies that constitutionalists and state legislators say infringe upon the rights of its citizens. According to the Baltimore Sun, Maryland Transit Administration authorities have announced that audio devices are being added to its buses to record private conversations in order to “investigate crimes, accidents and poor customer service.”
The Baltimore Sun writes,
The first 10 buses — marked with signs to alert passengers to the open microphones — began service … in Baltimore, and officials expect to expand that to 340 buses, about half the fleet, by next summer.
Microphones are incorporated in the video surveillance system that has been in place for years.
Each bus will be equipped with an aviation black box that will store 30 days of audio and video information. In the event of an accident involving passengers or a complaint against a driver, the device can be removed from the locked equipment box and downloaded to be reviewed.
According to the MTA, the purpose of the program is to ensure passenger safety.
“We want to make sure people feel safe, and this builds up our arsenal of tools to keep our patrons safe,” said Maryland Transit Administration chief Ralign Wells. “The audio completes the information package for investigators and responders.”
Not everyone is convinced by this statement, however. Natural News observes, “It’s appropriate to remind readers that ‘public safety’ is the excuse of choice for authoritarians who no longer feel constrained by the Constitution.”
Wells claims that the cost of the initiative is insignificant since the cameras are able to record audio and all new buses will have audio-video systems as standard equipment. He indicates that the system is legal per the state attorney general’s office, and notes that letters were sent to the American Civil Liberties Union and unions representing the bus drivers. The Baltimore Sun explains,
A spokesman for the attorney general’s office confirmed that transit officials were advised by their counsel that based on a 2000 appeals court decision, the audio recordings did not violate the state wiretapping law.
But attorneys with the ACLU disagree. One lawyer said he was “flabbergasted” with the MTA’s decision to record conversations, particularly after a similar proposal was rejected in 2009 by the state’s highest ranking transportation officials and also by the General Assembly on three separate occasions.
In 2009, the secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation rejected a proposal similar to this one and called for more review before adopting such a controversial policy.
