Florida is on the way to becoming the very first state in the country to regulate the use of drones for police work.
Drones are a kind of remote-controlled aircraft that can be used for surveillance—and in the past year, two of the state’s largest police departments have bought them to use for police work.
However, state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Palm City, hopes to put some strict rules in place that would make it harder for police to use those drones.
Negron, who is known in the Florida Legislature for his strict libertarian views, has spent much of his time in office on the lookout for what he sees as government intrusion.
His latest concern: that the use of drones for local police work might infringe on Florida residents’ privacy rights.
Negron said in a Senate Criminal Justice Committee meeting that there needs to be restrictions in place.
“Like all technology, there are good uses of technology and not good uses of technology,” he told committee members. “And I think it is up to the legislature not to just rely on courts to protect our liberties. You know, drones are fine for killing terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but they shouldn’t be used to monitor the activity of law-abiding Floridians.”
If Negron’s bill becomes law, agencies like Miami Dade’s police department will have to make some stricter guidelines for its drone program. The bill currently requires a search warrant for most surveillance—but allows for some looser guidelines for extreme cases like terrorism.
Miami Dade Police Lieutenant Aviel Sanchez says there is basically no need for Negron’s bill, since drone programs like his are guided by a slew of other laws.
“There is already enough law and enough policy in place that this bill doesn’t change at all the capabilities of when law enforcement can use it,” Sanchez says.
Sanchez says Miami Dade’s police force already takes search and seizure rights into account when using the drone.
“If it’s not in a public area, I still need to get that warrant,” he says. “You know, I am guided by law—whether it is state, federal or local—and I am also guided by the policies of the department.”
In short, Lieutenant Sanchez says his department’s program is already meant for limited use. However, Baylor Johnson, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida says that might not always be the case.
“Unfortunately, what we have seen time and again with surveillance technology is that it ends up being expanded beyond the limited use that we are initially told it is going to be used for,” he says.
Johnson’s group is currently lobbying the Legislature to pass Negron’s bill.
Even though only two police departments in Florida have pursued a drone program, Johnson says now is the time to crack down.
“So what we see is this sort of ratcheting effect is that as technology advances it becomes increasingly easy for surveillance equipment to be expanded further and further into surveying public spaces--and as the inevitable problems arise, it’s becoming harder and harder to scale things back,” he says.
Orange County Sheriff Captain Michael Fewless said in a Florida Senate Community Affairs committee meeting he could only support the bill if there was also an exception for crowd control included. The Florida Sheriff’s Association shared similar concerns at the bill’s hearing and is against the drone bill.
However, Senator Negron’s bill has already passed through two Senate committees. The House version has passed in one committee.
