Ⓐnarcho Queer

California County Inching Toward Drone Deployment?

Will Alameda County become California’s first local government to deploy a drone?

If the decision were up to dozens of angry residents and several civil rights groups, the answer would be a resounding “No.” They urged the Bay Area county’s leaders, in a public hearing sometimes filled with acrimony Thursday, to squash a plan by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department to deploy up to two small, lightweight drones.

“We oppose the use of public resources to buy machines to surveil its citizens,” Michael Seigel, a member of Alameda County Against Drones, said to rousing applause by many of the 150 people in attendance before the Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ Public Protection Committee.

Moments later, Sheriff Gregory Ahern said: “We object to the term surveil. We have no intention of doing that.”

Alameda County, just east of San Francisco, is closing in on becoming one of dozens of local law enforcement agencies nationwide to deploy the unmanned crafts. Some of the agencies include the Miami-Dade Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

While Alameda County inches toward drone use, the Seattle Police Department last week grounded its two drones amid privacy concerns, and months after the Government Accountability Office warned Congress that its push for drones to become commonplace in U.S. airspace fails to take into account privacy, security and even GPS jamming and spoofing. The GAO, Congress’ research arm, was responding to the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, signed by President Barack Obama in February, which among other things requires the Federal Aviation Administration to accelerate drone flights in U.S. airspace.

Source: anarcho-queer