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.”

  • qooqie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Ah, it wouldn’t be the police if they didn’t try to violate people’s rights before lawmakers can tell them no.

    • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      They shoud have to fire and not rehire half the police force every time this kind of thing haopens

      • geodesic@slrpnk.net
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        1 year ago

        We’d get to zero point zero remaining in a few minutes. So, I’m obviously in favor.

  • pwalshj@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They totally won’t use this to perv on girls sunning themselves on their private property. They have already been busted multiple times perving on girls walking in midtown but they would never do anything like that again and again and again.

    • Dr_pepper_spray@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So I’ve installed and operated PTZ cameras for multiple television shows and events, sometimes with junior operators - or just production assistants or other crew. These are in places where people know cameras are present. I can guarantee it doesn’t take long for people at the camera control unit to learn they can zoom in on people’s phones on set or follow girls around - and these are all professional people.

      Cops with a drone that can zoom in on people unwittingly, in their back yards?! Oh, they are certainly going to do shit like this, or worse - they’ll likely record for themselves.

  • bigkix@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I’m not from US - why is it forbidden to have a large group of people in the backyard?
    As for the drones - just wow…

    • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Any excuse to use surveillance cameras to spy on people will be used. It’s not forbidden to have a party, but the shithead cops want to spy on people anyway just in case they might catch them breaking some laws.

      There is also a nationwide program being implemented to feed the video from private security cameras into police surveillance systems. It’s called FUSUS and they use equipment installed in private networks to upload the private security cameras’ video to the police surveillance systems. Lots of people are signing on to this horrific program - businesses, schools, churches, community centers, etc. The police can use it to track people with video surveillance without a warrant. Security cameras anywhere you go could be potentially tapped into by government authorities to monitor you. It’s already all over the USA and being rolled out in the UK now too.

      Just as it is in the UK with their surveillance cameras everywhere, this is the future that George Orwell tried to warn us about.

    • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It’s not forbidden. This is a huge overstep by the police but typical of American police, who are allowed to violate our civil rights with impunity.

  • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party

    Still bitter that they were never invited to any parties in high school and college. Seriously though, they need to back the fuck up. We have an amendment that requires them to get a warrant to spy on us on our own property or in our own house. Civil liberties groups need to stop raising questions and sue the fuck out of the police, judges, Mayor, and legislature. I hope someone knocks those drones out of the air. This kind of shit is infuriating. And no this isn’t a sci-fi scenario, this is a clear and present dystopia.

  • Kodemystic@lemmy.kodemystic.dev
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    1 year ago

    Reading comments defending cops for launching drones to surveill people in their homes really boosts my morning faith in humanity.

  • geekworking@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • Alto@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Don’t forget scale. Significantly more practical to have a couple dozen drones than helicopters

      • Brownian Motion@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

    • uis@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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)

        • downpunxx@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          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

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Easy fix. Take a picture of the ground, using a drone. Then get a big marquee and have that picture painted on the marquee.

    Your party is now invisible.

    • Dedh@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This was actually done for entire blocks during WWII, specifically in Southern California where aerospace design & mfg companies where located. The covers were painted to look like dirt lots or undeveloped spaces to hide the actual buildings & roads from potential aerial assaults.

    • Stoneykins [any]@mander.xyz
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      1 year ago

      I wouldn’t risk life in prison to find out, they might just call the drone a helicopter to arrest you

      Edit: To be clear, fuck the police and their spy toys. I just don’t wanna get caught doing something that will ruin my life, and I hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else.

  • Zengen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • Podunk@lemmyfly.org
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      1 year ago

      The faa regulates air traffic .including drones. You shoot down an nypd drone, you’re gunna get the feds involved.