Drones at home
Only a few police departments in the country now use unmanned aerial drones under special federal approval, but that is expected to change once the Federal Aviation Administration drafts new rules to open the skies to commercial use of drones.
Law enforcement agencies primarily use the smaller versions of the Predator drones flown in war zones in surveillance, for search-and-rescue missions, to monitor traffic and even help with crowd control. While their use is now primarily for observation, there is concern that one day deadly weapons could be added to domestic drones. Some of them can be equipped with rubber bullets, laser projectiles and tear gas.
However, the International Association of Chiefs of Police has come out against arming drones in a set of recommendations on how they should be used. …
The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed the suggestions but thought privacy protections should be “put into law, not merely promulgated by the police themselves.” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has introduced legislation that would require police to obtain a warrant before all uses except when a drone is used to patrol the border, in the threat of a terrorist attack or when life is threatened.
There is too great a risk of misuse or deadly error by a drone operator sitting at a desk misreading a volatile situation in deciding whether to bomb unruly demonstrators with tear gas or open fire with a barrage of bullets. Limits have to be imposed on use of the weapons.
The Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times