New York Police Department announced that it plans to monitor backyard parties throughout the city with drones. Though plainly unconstitutional, and in violation of a 2020 law prohibiting it, the warrantless surveillance plan has the support of mayor Eric Adams, who "wants to see police further embrace the "endless" potential of drones, citing Israel's use of the technology," reports the Associated Press.
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."
The law binds you, not them. The first thought people have is "shoot them down," but the here's the thing: police drones are "aircraft," so you're not risking months in jail for damaging police property, you're risking decades in prison as a terrorist. Instead, find another way.
