On September 4, Americans will celebrate Labor Day and police have announced that they plan to rely on the use of drones to monitor any overflow, including in private spaces.
Drones above residents’ gardens. This may be the new means of surveillance during Labor Day on September 4 in New York, as announced by the city’s deputy commissioner, reports the American site The Verge.
During a press conference given on August 30, Kaz Daughtry, assistant commissioner of the New York police clarified: “If a call indicates that there is a crowd, a large party in a garden, we will use our resources to check if this is the case”.
And to continue: “we will use this technology (drones, editor’s note) to ensure that the call is justified or not, and we will be able to determine how many resources we must send to this place (…) Our arsenal of drones will be in place from this evening until Monday morning”.
The announcement drew an immediate backlash from liberties advocates, questioning whether the provision violated police surveillance laws.
watch over the city
Indeed, for some, this initiative is illegal. New York City’s POST law requires police to release 90 days notice of any new decisions that change their surveillance techniques. But nothing has been released regarding the use of drones in this event.
“The NYPD has apparently granted itself the power to monitor the city in this way,” quips the specialized media.
In the city, drones can only be used in the context of – for example – search and rescue operations, incidents involving hazardous materials or even for visual assistance in support of police work.
Police also clarified in 2021 that the drones would not be used “unless NYPD personnel first obtain a search warrant explicitly authorizing the use.”
“Explosion of the use of drones”
In the Labor Day situation, it’s possible that police are exploiting a loophole in the POST law where police can decide that this new tool is an “enhancement” of an existing technology policy.
New York City Police Departments used drones for public safety or emergency purposes 124 times in 2023, up from just four times in the previous year. For its part, the American Civil Liberties Union recently warned of “an explosion in the use of drones by law enforcement”.
The New York police have been developing a strategy for several months that relies heavily on new technologies. Last May, she reintroduced robot dogs to the streets, baptized Digidogdeveloped by Boston Dynamics, for inspection and reconnaissance in hazardous areas.
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2023-09-01 09:36:57
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