Ban on police drone use?

On Tuesday, September 22 a group of New Hampshire House committees will meet to discuss prohibiting law enforcement use of drones to collect evidence.

Drones technology is getting smaller and cheaper, presenting law enforcement with a new tool for surveillance.

Some privacy advocates are concerned that the ease of drone use will create a surveillance society, in which the police routinely use drones to surveil the public.

In 2011 the American Civil Liberties Union wrote, “The prospect of cheap, small, portable flying video surveillance machines threatens to eradicate existing practical limits on aerial monitoring and allow for pervasive surveillance, police fishing expeditions, and abusive use of these tools in a way that could eventually eliminate the privacy Americans have traditionally enjoyed in their movements and activities.”

On the other hand, a 2014 paper from the Brookings Institution notes that there are many beneficial and non-controversial law enforcement uses for drones. 

For example, after the Boston Marathon bombings the police might want to fly a drone over a marathon to watch the crowd.  The police are allowed to watch the crowd without the assistance of a drone, so why should a drone be prohibited?

The Brookings Institution suggested several alternative laws, such as a limit on the aggregate amount of time the government may surveil a specific individual.

The New Hampshire committees will recommend whether or not to pass the drone ban in 2016.