The tiny town of
Lakota, N.D., is quickly becoming a key testing ground for the legality of the
use of unmanned drones by law enforcement after one of its residents became the
first American citizen to be arrested with the help of a Predator surveillance
drone.
The bizarre case
started when six cows wandered onto Rodney Brossart’s 3,000 acre farm. Brossart
believed he should have been able to keep the cows, so he and two family members
chased police off his land with high powered rifles.
After a 16-hour
standoff, the Grand Forks police department SWAT team, armed with a search
warrant, used an agreement they’ve had with Homeland Security for about three
years, and called in an unmanned aerial vehicle to pinpoint Brossart’s location
on the ranch.
The SWAT team
stormed in and arrested Brossart on charges of terrorizing a sheriff, theft,
criminal mischief, and other charges, according to documents.
"We're not
laying over here playing dead on it," says Brossart, who is scheduled to appear
in court on April 30. He believes what the SWAT team did was "definitely"
illegal.
While there's no
precedent for the use of unmanned drones by law enforcement, John Villasenor, an
expert on information gathering and drone use with the Washington, D.C.-based
Brookings Institution, says he'd be "floored" if the court throws the case out.
Using a drone is no different than using a helicopter, he
says.
"It may have
been the first time a drone was used to make an arrest, but it's certainly not
going to be the last," Villasenor says. "I would be very surprised if someone
were able to successfully launch a legal challenge [in Brossart's case]." Prison
Planet
The U.S.
Congress passed a bill in February to make it easier for the government to fly
unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace. Washington Times Although UAVs
are today most commonly associated with military actions, in the United States,
civilian law enforcement agencies use drones to patrol the nation's borders,
scout property, and hunt down fugitives. (Center for Democracy &
Technology) Currently, about
300 law enforcement agencies and research institutions-including the Grand Forks
SWAT team-have "temporary licenses" from the FAA to use drones. (Center for
Democracy & Technology) Individuals in
the U.S. have few legal privacy protections from aerial surveillance conducted
through UAVs. The weakness of legal protection from UAV surveillance have led to
calls from civil liberties advocacy groups for the U.S. government to issue laws
and regulations that establish both privacy protections and greater transparency
regarding the use of UAVs to gather information about individuals. (Center for
Democracy & Technology)
AHT/HJ
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