The New York City police department plans to pilot the unmanned aircrafts in response to complaints about large gatherings, including private events, over Labor Day weekend, officials announced Thursday.
“If a caller states there’s a large crowd, a large party in a backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party,” Kaz Daughtry, the assistant NYPD Commissioner, said at a press conference.
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.”
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what a crazy abuse of power and resources fuck the police
You control the airspace of your property, I don’t think they can legally fly over without permission.
No, you don’t. Not in the sense that you can prevent overflight. The FAA certainly isn’t going to let you stop plans from flying over your house.
The definitional boundary is where navigable airspace begins. You do own the non-navigable airspace above your property and you would have a trespassing argument if a drone entered that area without your permission. Where exactly the boundary is between navigable and non is a bit fuzzy but generally it will be at the highest object in the property eg. a treetop.
I still wouldn’t mess with the drone though, as another commenter said interfering with an aircraft of any type is a very serious crime.
Also, a drone hovering high over the street can probably see your back yard just as well as if it was hovering directly over your property.
True but you may be able to get a judge to agree that it can’t be used as evidence in court.
FTA it says they’re using it in response to complaints, which is probably how they’re getting around the 4th amendment and considering the complaint of a large gathering “probable cause”. I’d bet my bottom dollar that only complaints in predominantly minority communities will actually be investigated with drones, based on NYPD practices. Just more to add to [email protected]
There’s a book I think everyone should read, and it’s not Nineteen Eighty-Four.
That’s a great recommendation!
I always think Fahrenheit 451 is more appropriate. They’re all about banning books after all.
America in general, yes; but I thought NY was one of the nice places?
America in general, yes; but I thought NY was one of the nice places?
NYPD is one of the most corrupt organizations on the planet.
Is it illegal to have house parties in NYC? Why is the NYPD busting up keggers like campus police?
It becomes illegal when there are too many people there, or there is violence, underage drinking, drug usage, and if it’s too loud, the attendees are parking in the street blocking traffic, fire risks all sorts of shit
It is illegal to have to many people at your own home? That’s a new one.
Only in the context of like, fire safety. You can’t have more people in a building than it is designed to safely hold.
Of course, cops use this safety regulation as an excuse to control people and be dicks…
Country of freedom my ass.
Freedom isn’t free. And the price tag has been increasing so fast
Nyc’s greatest act was convincing everyone they’re a liberal city.
Those sound like things they need a warrant to learn about in a place with a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Are they doing this in white, affluent communities?
We should try to make them
That’s all stuff people can call the cops for, no need for surveillance.
So you didn’t read the article?
It was an incomplete article that did not properly explain what the supposed legitimate issue is.
They say ‘if a caller reports a large crowd, they’ll send a drone’, not ‘if a crime is reported’. That’s still surveillance, being in a large crowd isn’t a crime by itself.
So the cops and fuck with your backyard party if you smoke a joint?
Joint? Nah, hard drugs, fo sho (unless you are a billionaire).
What a waste of time and resources.
How they will distinguish cigaretes, joints and hard drugs?
Skin color
How would a drone know? Other than capacity and street violations, there’s nothing that a drone should realistically be able to identify.
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I think the drone operators would do the identifying part
no, as grass is legal in nyc now, but if you’re blowing lines and smoking crack, trippin balls, or tweakin, they probably should, you know, for the kids in the neighborhood you nincompoop
Stfu. No.
They are not responding to complains, they are searching themselves.
EDIT: my eyes. They are responding. Still very wierd. Crowd itself is not a crime, article 20 of DoHR says so.
The article specifically says in response to complaints…
It will be construed as, they can start indefinite surveillance on an area after a complaint is filed at any time.
“Someone complained 3 weeks ago so we’re just checking it out”
As does the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Sorry what’s the problem with a party?
the way folks in the city throw them, sometimes, there are more problems than party
Belive me, I agree that there are a lot of shitheads in the world that make it a crappy place to live.
But I still think this kind of surveillance is overreach. The people doing the surveilling are not good people either.
in a city whose physical geography is small in comparison to the enormity of humanity crammed into it, everyone’s gotta behave or people die. simple as that. say what you like, but the communities must be policed, and if police can’t see what you’re doing if there’s a problem or emergency, from the street, then air it is
Might as well preemptively lock everyone in a cell. That’d be the safest way to do it.
I think it is country what is wrong, where Declaration of Human Rights used as toilet paper.
See: article 20(relevant to topic) and article 3(irrelevant to topic)
I would guess that when people start calling the cops to complain about an assembly, the assembly is no longer considered peaceful.
It doesn’t work this way. At least normally.
If you’re too loud, the cops may issue a citation, and ask you to be quieter. They do not typically dissolve the assembly.
i hope they can be dazzled/jammed in a way that is not illegal. just have bright lamps pointing up or something
Or slingshot it, then claim you thought it was a perv and not a cop drone because they have no discernable markings from so far up.
Based on the amount of Ukraine drone strike videos I’ve seen, these things are near unnoticeable as high up as they are.
True. And telling streetcleaners look at the sky won’t change anything.
Just FYI, interfering with any drone, even a hobbyist drone flown by a perv spying on you, is a VERY serious crime. The FAA doesn’t fuck around with that, because drones are considered aircraft under their jurisdiction. They’ll go after you as hard as they would if you took down a fully-occupied 747.
More often than not, you’ll get in worse trouble for interfering with a drone than the pilot will for whatever crimes they may be committing with it. It’s not worth it. Your best bet is to just report it and go inside.
Any drone of any size? Or only the larger ones that require license to operate?
I mean, one kills people, that seems like it would be treated different
Any object falling uncontrollably out of the sky can kill somebody.
I like this one, it’s difficult to blame anyone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIOh9-RoAaE
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Jamming may cause problems with FCC
Helium balloons and fishimg line
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How is this the bottom comment right now?
I think the probability of the cops catching you using a net launcher is too high.
I think a diy directional emp would be a better choice. https://techlinkcenter.org/news/heres-the-armys-now-patented-emp-rifle-attachment-for-taking-out-small-drones#!
For the more technically inclined, I would imagine something like a software defined radio with a powerful transmitter could take control of the drone and go park it in the Hudson.
I’m pretty sure all of these options are highly illegal. So this is just for informational purposes only. :)
Ah, it wouldn’t be the police if they didn’t try to violate people’s rights before lawmakers can tell them no.
They shoud have to fire and not rehire half the police force every time this kind of thing haopens
We’d get to zero point zero remaining in a few minutes. So, I’m obviously in favor.
ACAFB
This all seems stupid.
If you have a party big and crazy enough to justify airborne surveillance, the police will be able to figure it out just by showing up at your door. No drones are needed.
That being said, NYC has been flying helicopters for decades, so really nothing new privacy wise other than the size of the aircraft and the fact that “drone” invokes fears that drive clicks.
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Don’t forget scale. Significantly more practical to have a couple dozen drones than helicopters
They would not launch a helicopter to confirm a large scale party.
But even still, so they use a drone and they do confirm a large scale party, then what? They have to deploy the police to the house anyhow. Isn’t better to have police just out patrolling and visiting these complaints? Then at least they look like they are doing something for the community.
Drones can get closer without detection. Also there’s a limit to helicopter use since they cause noise pollution.
Replace drone with helicopter and this isn’t tech news. This isn’t any different a tactic, either.
A helicopter is very obvious when it’s nearby, a drone is far less so. One could be watching you right now and you probably wouldn’t know unless you were looking for it.
Remember when bill of rights?
I be establishing an anti drone firing squad in NYC. We will shoot down any law enforcement drones we find. Fuck the NYPD. fuck the mayor. If your drone flies over my property in NYC it will be shot lol.
The faa regulates air traffic .including drones. You shoot down an nypd drone, you’re gunna get the feds involved.
This is as bad as Russia. Or even worse. Congrats on achieving new bottom.
oh no is russia
Russia doesn’t control party sizes.
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