The New York City police department plans to pilot the unmanned aircrafts in response to complaints about large gatherings, including private events, over Labor Day weekend, officials announced Thursday.
“If a caller states there’s a large crowd, a large party in a backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party,” Kaz Daughtry, the assistant NYPD Commissioner, said at a press conference.
The plan drew immediate backlash from privacy and civil liberties advocates, raising questions about whether such drone use violated existing laws for police surveillance.
“It’s a troubling announcement and it flies in the face of the POST Act,” said Daniel Schwarz, a privacy and technology strategist at the New York Civil Liberties Union, referring to a 2020 city law that requires the NYPD to disclose its surveillance tactics. “Deploying drones in this way is a sci-fi inspired scenario.”
You know i’m not a fan of guns but this makes me think about buying an anti aircraft weapon…
Just get an anti-drone eagle
Better: We will train the america (i think it’s a bald eagle) eagle to take down a drone. The FAA can’t do shit, the cops can’t (legally) do shit about the eagle and the drone will at worst sustain some damage.
Breaking federal laws doesn’t sound like a good way to do anything but go straight to federal prison. The FAA laws on shooting down aircraft are pretty serious.
This is a perfect example of something unethical being lawful. Should we break unethical laws?
Do drones count as aircraft?
The law says yes
What about accidentally spraying them with a hose?