Persistent Surveillance a Key Topic at DHS Conference

Technologies designed to provide "persistent surveillance" are among the highlighted topics at the four day Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Stakeholder conference.

Project CHLOE was among the most whiz-bang of them, beginning with its flashy Hollywood name. (the project is named after the computer whiz character on the TV show 24 .)

As described by Undersecretary for Science & Technology, Jay Cohen, Chloe is a counter MANPADS persistent surveillance system. (MANPADS is the acronym for rocket-fired grenades, or RPGs.) In layman's language the systems consists of: an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hovering above traffic senses the launch of a rocket-fired grenade and uses laser technology to "blind" the grenade and throw it off its intended course (such as a commercial plane). In the few seconds that it "stumbles" off course, the grenade can be destroyed.

Vendors at the conference also showed off their persistent surveillance systems, which generally include a plane, a camera, a regular pattern of wide-range photos, and a system for transmitting them to a network for nearly immediate viewing. One vendor showed me footage taken above a stadium, as an example of the kind of place where densely packed major events might take place.

Watching from on-high can help law enforcement see patterns of behavior or suspicious (or at least unlikely) behavior.

I asked the vendor about whether such systems invade my rights to privacy. If I went to the stadium for a game or a concert, for example, had I tacitly given my consent to be surveilled? He said that Supreme Court decisions about when people can have a reasonable expectation of privacy govern what can and can't be surveilled. The insides of our cars and houses are private, but the outsides aren't, he said. Cameras cannot look inside cars, but anything we do outside (including in our own back yards) are fair game.