al to operate drones independent of employees.
Even with the privacy concerns, the ACLU accepts drones as inevitable for integration into domestic airspace.
But while they believe inclusion is inevitable, they suggest guidelines to mitigate privacy concerns. The ACLU believes that privacy violations and the danger of drones will be minimized if government users are required to obtain a warrant in order to retain any video or imagery recorded by a drone. In addition, the dangers could be further minimized by conducting open audits and through a ban on drone weaponry.
The Grand Forks North Dakota police department, selected by the FAA as one of its early adopter “test” sites, has created an ethics committee to build guidelines to minimize privacy concern.
During a concert, and the resulting influx of people, the use of drones was approved by the committee on several conditions which they believed would limit concerns.
First, the drones employed were only allowed to video cars, which posed traffic hazards, but not humans on foot. In addition, the drone was allowed only to stream footage to a human operator, not permanently record footage. Finally, a sign was put in place to alert the public to the use of the drones.
After being questioned about potential drone use by the NYPD in an interview with New York’s WOR 710, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg pointed out that “it’s not a question of whether I think it’s good or bad. I just don’t see how you could stop that because we’re going to have them.”
The potential benefits of drones and UASs in the United States means that they are inevitable, yet as Bloomberg said later in the same interview in reference to drones and their potential privacy and safety concerns, “This is something that society needs to think about. And not by writing a quick piece of legislation—these are long-term serious problems.”