Legislation to spur regular aerial surveillance of the city to help fight violent crime advanced Tuesday at the Board of Aldermen over objections of opponents who fear that civil liberties of average citizens could be jeopardized.
The board’s Public Safety Committee voted 6-1 to send the measure to the full board.
The bill would direct Mayor Lyda Krewson or her successor to contract with an Ohio company that uses planes to track movement of suspects and vehicles moments after a crime is committed.
“We must do anything we can to curb crime in our city,” said one supporter, Alderman John Collins-Muhammad, D-21st Ward. “We need to be innovative, creative and bold.”
Collins-Muhammad and some other aldermen backing the plan said their areas and constituents on the city’s north side have been especially hard hit by the increasing violence.
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Most of the more than 20 speakers at the lengthy teleconference hearing opposed the bill.
Opponents said it would make more sense to use that money to address what they said are root causes of crime such as poverty, hunger and lack of health care.
“PSS’s spy planes won’t do this,” said Sarah Felts, a Tower Grove South resident.
Ross McNutt, who heads the company — Persistent Surveillance Systems — reiterated that the wide-angle aerial cameras can only track pixels and not identify individuals or their race.
Supporters hope that the estimated $7.5 million cost of the three-year trial program would be borne by John and Laura Arnold, a billionaire Texas couple who have offered to fund such a pilot effort in a city with a violent crime problem.
