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Domestic Use of Aerial Drones By Law Enforcement

PatPending writes "Aerial drones are now used by the Texas Department of Public Safety; the Mesa County Sheriff's Office, Colorado; the Miami-Dade County, Florida, Police Department; and the Department of Homeland Security. But what about privacy concerns? 'Drones raise the prospect of much more pervasive surveillance,' said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. 'We are not against them, absolutely. They can be a valuable tool in certain kinds of operations. But what we don't want to see is their pervasive use to watch over the American people.'"

4 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Texas Budget shortfall for 2011 by transporter_ii · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A budget shortfall as high as $25 billion is projected as lawmakers head into the 2011 legislative session,

    Nice to know they have money to burn to spy on me...

    --
    Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
  2. Re:But its ok for Google? by Algorithmnast · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hopefully the parent will get modded up for humor. But if taken seriously, it's still a good segue into useful discussion.

    It'd be pretty easy to land in jail for that, as well. The "fried tech" would establish a radius, and therefore a center. And while you can try to do a covert op and put it in a box that's remote-controlled (blah, blah, blah, etc, etc, etc), it's amazing how good government forensics can get when you've actually annoyed the government.

    It would seem to be one way to get labeled with the terrier-ist word...

    Plus - have you considered what such a stunt would do for our individual "rights"? The Supreme Court has already declared that when you're in public spaces (including outside a building) you have no expectation of not being recorded both visually and audibly.

  3. Re:But its ok for Google? by Cytotoxic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Funny you should mention that - in this case the person arrested was trying to file a complaint about police misconduct and ran into a bureaucratic wall, so she recorded her final attempt on her blackberry. Many months later they are still starting their investigation into the police misconduct, but they wasted no time in getting her arrested and charged for making the recording.

  4. How low can it fly? by mangu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder what would be the minimum legal height at which one can fly.

    If a plane goes twenty thousand feet above your property, that seems to be perfectly legal. If one of those drones flies two feet above your property that seems like trespassing to me.

    Is there some minimum height agt which an aircraft must fly over private property without authorization from the owner?