Idaho’s governor has signed a law that creates stricter guidelines for when police and other public agencies can deploy drones, Reuters reported. The bill will bolster privacy rights as the use of unmanned aircraft is on the rise across the US.
The measure, signed by Idaho Governor C.L. ‘Butch’ Otter on
Thursday, will require law enforcement to obtain warrants to use
drones to gather criminal evidence, except in cases involving
illegal drugs or for emergencies like hostage standoffs and
search and rescue missions, Reuters reports.
The bill, which was approved by both the Idaho House and Senate
last week, also bans the use of drones to conduct surveillance on
people or their property without written consent. Anyone who is
surveilled unlawfully can press charges and is entitled to $1,000
in damages.
"We're trying to prevent high-tech window-peeping," Idaho
Senate Assistant Majority Leader Chuck Winder, sponsor of the
measure in the Republican-led Idaho legislature, told Reuters
earlier this year. Winder, a former military pilot, had previously
said drones were a potentially versatile technology, but it was of
the utmost importance that their use did not trample on
constitutional protections.
The move makes Idaho the second US state after Virginia to clamp
down on drone use over privacy concerns. Legislation has already
been introduced by lawmakers in 36 states to regulate domestic
drone use, and bills are still actively being considered in 31
states.
In almost all of the measures, state legislatures are seeking to
require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before using a
drone in an investigation.
With the unmanned aerial vehicle industry expected to balloon to
$100 billion dollars over the next 10 to 15 years, federal
lawmakers have increasingly taken interest in the increased use of
drones on US soil.
“I am convinced that the domestic use of drones to conduct
surveillance and collect other information will have a broad and
significant impact on the everyday lives of millions of Americans
going forward,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy
(D-VT) told a Senate hearing on the domestic use of drones last
month.
Leahy warned that with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
estimating up to 30,000 drones to be operating in US airspace by
the decade’s end, “Congress must carefully consider the policy
implications of this fast-emerging technology.”
Despite Leahy’s concerns, in February Congress passed a bill that
will force the Federal Aviation Administration to open national
airspace to unmanned civil and commercial craft by the end of 2015,
as well as loosen regulations on the use of drones for domestic
surveillance.
The most contentious use of UAVs has been the deployment of
military-style Predator drones on US borders to track illegal
immigration and drug smugglers.
"Equipping state and local law enforcement with military weapons
and vehicles [such as drones]… to conduct traditional law
enforcement erodes civil liberties and encourages increasingly
aggressive policing, particularly in poor neighborhoods and
communities of color," US News quoted Kara Dansky, senior
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) counsel as saying.
The ACLU kicked off a nationwide investigation in March to assess
the use of drones and other military technologies on US soil amidst
fears that the increased use of UAVs could usher in “a
‘surveillance society’ in which our every move is monitored,
tracked, recorded and scrutinized by the government.”