Talk of the Nation National Public Radio (NPR) October 16, 2002 (2:00 PM ET)
Video surveillance and privacy rights
NEAL CONAN, host: One of the new tools being utilized or that may soon be utilized to find the Washington area sniper is a military plane, which will provide aerial surveillance of the metropolitan region. On the line to tell us about it is John Pike. He's director of GlobalSecurity.org, a security and defense consulting firm in Alexandria, Virginia. And always good to have you on the program, John.
Mr. JOHN PIKE (GlobalSecurity.org): Glad to be here.
CONAN: Tell us about this plane. What's it equipped with?
Mr. PIKE: Well, it looks like the military is going to be deploying one or more of the RC-7 Airborne Reconnaissance Low aircraft. These were developed about a decade ago to provide counterinsurgency and counternarcotics surveillance for US Southern Command. They've been used to support peacekeeping operations in Bosnia. There are several of them that are deployed in South Korea right now to provide surveillance along the Demilitarized Zone. They have a number of different sensors on them. They have a high-powered radar. They have communications intercept capabilities to monitor radios. But in this particular case, the primary sensor is--basically it's a TV camera with a telescope attached. They have an infrared capability on it, a low-light level capability so that they can see at night.
And basically I think the theory is that with this airplane flying at an altitude of maybe four miles above downtown Washington, that that TV camera would be able to see out to the suburbs. And as soon as the police get a call to 911 about shots fired or possible sniper activity, that the TV camera on that airplane would be able to zoom in on the area that the crime had been reported at and start looking around that area of that neighborhood for the white van that's apparently associated with the sniper.
CONAN: We all watch on the movies that these surveillance equipment can zoom in and read the lettering on somebody's belt buckle, you know.
Mr. PIKE: Well, I spend half of my time explaining what these things can do and actually more than half of my time explaining what they can't do. There's been a lot of talk about possibly using reconnaissance satellites, military spy satellites for trying to track down this sniper. Anybody who's seen movies like "Enemy of the State" I think has a very mistaken view about what these things are capable of doing. In the case of this particular airplane, I think the hope is that flying over downtown Washington, that it could see out to the suburbs and tell the difference between a white van and a red convertible. It's not going to be reading license plates. It's not going to be able to see individuals at that range. It's not going to be able to recognize people. Certainly not going to be able to continuously monitor the region and catch the sniper before he actually does anything. But with luck, it might be a useful tool to tell the police what roads need to be blocked to try to catch him.
CONAN: Quickly, John, you said with luck, this might be useful. Are people just looking for something to do, do you think?
Mr. PIKE: Well, I think that a lot of the interest that we've seen in this airplane over the last 24 hours has stemmed from I think people looking for a technological solution for the problem of the sniper. We live in a technological society. We're so dependant on technology. I think there is hope that there is a technological quick fix to this problem. I think there is the potential here for this airplane to be able to get the police to the right area, be able to block the right roads quickly, but I don't think there's any miracle cure here, because whatever the technological capabilities are, this is not a spy satellite from the movies. It's not going to enable you to instantaneously zero in on a perpetrator.
CONAN: John Pike is director of GlobalSecurity.org. Thanks very much.
Mr. PIKE: Thank you.
CONAN: More about surveillance technology when we come back from a short break. I'm Neal Conan. It's TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
Copyright 2002 National Public Radio
