Army Searching for Suppliers of City-Scale Imaging Sensors
The U.S. Army issued an RFI (Request for Information) to identify potential suppliers of city-scale imaging sensors and associated storage and processing units. The Army is seeking moderate-resolution electro-optical sensors that can persistently surveil, during the day and night, large areas to track movement of people and vehicles.
This technology is not new but the latest hardware and software is making persistent surveillance much less costly and much more effective. Persistent surveillance systems are not just being used over foreign lands. The FBI is using small aircraft over U.S. cities to collect imagery, cellular traffic, and other signals during times of civil strife such as the Baltimore riots in 2015.
The public radio show Radiolab interviewed representatives of the communities and surveillance provider that were part of trial demonstrations of airborne Persistent Surveillance systems over Dayton Ohio and Ciudad, Juarez from 2012 to 2014. The trials demonstrated both the controversial nature and effectiveness of the systems. With a 24-hour surveillance video of a whole city, law enforcement has a rewind button that it can use to track crime perpetrators.
Links and image credit:
Photo credit: Intelligent Aerospace, Aug 2016.
U.S. Army RFI posted on FedBizOpps.com on July 28, 2016.
ACLU FOIA documents pertaining to FBI surveillance flights over Baltimore, Oct 2015.
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