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.”

    • 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)

      • 30mag@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I would guess that when people start calling the cops to complain about an assembly, the assembly is no longer considered peaceful.

          • 30mag@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            If you’re too loud, the cops may issue a citation, and ask you to be quieter. They do not typically dissolve the assembly.

        • 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