ST. LOUIS — Aerial surveillance in Baltimore led to a small improvement in solving serious crimes during its six months of operation last year, researchers said Wednesday.
But the preliminary report issued by the RAND Corp. said it's too soon to draw conclusions about the overall effectiveness of the pilot program, which is similar to one under consideration by St. Louis aldermen. A final report won't be issued until April 2022.
"Our report outlines a few preliminary findings based on case outcomes to date, but some of these outcomes may change as the Baltimore police continue to investigate crimes that occurred during the pilot period," said Andrew Morral, a senior behavioral scientist at RAND.
"Our evaluation of how crime and police investigations changed in Baltimore from before to during and then after the pilot (program) will require another year to complete."
The preliminary report says the research conducted so far suggests that the aircraft cameras may have helped police solve an additional 11 serious crimes during the program, which ran from May through October.
That was a rate 7 percentage points higher than similar cases with no overhead evidence, the report said.
RAND was paid to do its study by Arnold Ventures, a Texas-based philanthropy that also funded the Baltimore surveillance program.
The Arnold organization announced Tuesday that it had decided not to pay for any future aerial surveillance efforts, including the one proposed for St. Louis.
The Board of Aldermen last week gave first-round approval to a bill that would direct Mayor Lyda Krewson or her successor to contract with Ohio-based Persistent Surveillance Systems for an 18-month trial program.
The bill, which requires the company to come up with private contributors to cover the estimated $5 million cost, could come up for passage as soon as Friday.
The sponsor, Alderman Tom Oldenburg, said the preliminary RAND findings are encouraging. He also reiterated that such a program needs a longer test period such as the one proposed here.
An opponent, Alderman Christine Ingrassia, said the small increased case clearance rate is "not that impressive" given the $3 million cost of the Baltimore program.
The preliminary report said the Baltimore program provided evidence on just 10% of the crimes it was designed to help investigate, in part because the planes there operated only in daytime. The St. Louis proposal calls for day and night flights.
