An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at one of Americas most controversial experiments in police surveillance. In 2020, the Baltimore Police Department had an aerial surveillance plane that could supposedly photograph and track every person in public view. Spy Plane reveals what happened with this controversial policing experiment. Drawing from incredible access and direct observations inside the for-profit tech startup that ran the program for Baltimore detectives, sociologist Benjamin H. Snyder recounts real criminal cases as they were worked by police using this untested tool. Deploying aircraft with powerful cameras built by a small company called Persistent Surveillance Systems, the spy plane program promised to help policesolve otherwise unsolvable crimesby tracking the whereabouts of suspects in violent crime cases. Created for the battlefields of Iraq, it had never been adapted on so large a scale in a U.S. city. This riveting book gives an unprecedented look inside the s