Policing the police’s drones
Wikimedia Commons
A moratorium would allow Virginia to adopt rules on how agencies could use drones without violating privacy rights.
Drones aren’t just for hunting terrorists.
You, too, may someday own a drone. In fact, you could now purchase a fairly inexpensive, crude low-range craft equipped with a camera that you could program with your iPad to check to see if shingles blew off your roof during the latest windstorm. Or, for those with voyeuristic tendencies, it could be deployed to peep on the neighbors, although that particular use would be ill-advised.
March 22, 2013 - 6:16 AM
I pretty much see your point and agree, but your last paragraph cracked me up. I do not fathom why you think “Agencies that seek to use drones should welcome the time to help develop rules that would allow them to use these tools without placing at risk individuals’ rights or the ability to successfully prosecute cases.” You have a very different idea about how they see themselves than I do, that much is crystal clear.
I have never, not once in my life, encountered a law enforcement officer who cared about my or anyone else’s “individual rights” and even when they completely bungle a case, the loss is not blamed on them, but rather the prosecutors or the “criminal” who “got away with it”. If you had any idea how people are really treated by law enforcement, I think you would be apoplectic within seconds. Adversarial does not begin to describe their relationship with citizens in their line of duty.
I whole-heartedly agree that we need rules, very specific and comprehensive, and sooner rather than later, but thinking that law enforcement will appreciate the wait or the rules is just plain laughable. I’d love to know who anyone thinks police the police.
1 – I agree with you, Sandi, at the risk of gaining your enmity. Well said.