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Maryland Public Buses Recording Passengers’ Private Conversations

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Steve Birr Vice Reporter
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Maryland public transit practices are sparking blowback from lawmakers, the transit union and shocked citizens for recording private conversations of passengers.

Lawmakers on Maryland’s Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee unanimously passed a bill this year that would block audio surveillance on public transit such as buses and trains. The bill was previously shot down four times in four years, reports The Washington Post.

The Maryland Senate proposed amendments to the bill, sponsored by Sen. Robert A. Zirkin, chair of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, Tuesday — further discussion on the measure was pushed to another session.

“What the Maryland Transit Administration is doing is a mass surveillance,” Zirkin said at a hearing on the bill. “I find it outrageous. I don’t want to overstate it, but this is the issue of our generation. As technology advances, it becomes easier and easier to encroach on people’s civil liberties.”

The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) currently has over 400 buses outfitted with audio capabilities, in addition to video surveillance.

Video surveillance is standard practice on public transportation to capture criminals, however audio recordings, which began in Maryland in 2012, have people concerned over how rapidly mass surveillance in the state is growing, reports WYPR.

Zirkin’s bill would apply to buses and trains in Baltimore, Ride On buses in Montgomery County and TheBus in Prince George’s County. But MTA plans to expand the surveillance technology in the name of added security, with officials saying the audio recordings are only used when an incident occurs and can aid police in arrests.

“We feel we should have as many tools at our disposal as possible to keep the public safe when they’re on our buses,” MTA Chief of Staff Jim Knighton said to legislators at a February hearing.

David McClure, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1300, says the argument that video surveillance is useful because it protects the public is absurd. McClure alleges many cases when audio surveillance is specifically used against bus drivers, not catching criminals, according to WYPR.

“They try to utilize it more toward discipline, even though they try to say that they do not,” McClure told WYPR.

Lawmakers in Maryland are torn over the controversial bill. One Democrat compared MTA surveillance to something out of “1984,” George Orwell’s dystopian vision of an all-powerful state.

“They believe there is no expectation of privacy on any mode of public transportation that the state of Maryland controls,” Baltimore County Senator Jim Brochin — who also read passages from the novel at a recent hearing — told WYPR. “If you’re with your significant other, your kids, your loved one and having a conversation, then you should have no expectation of privacy. And I reject that.”

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