Law Enforcement Wants Exceptions To Florida Drone Ban
By MARGIE MENZEL
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- Lawmakers and police
continued to wrangle Wednesday over when law enforcement should be
allowed to use unmanned drones, trying to settle on where the tipping
point is on the balance scale of liberty and public safety.
The chief advocate in the Legislature for what originally was envisioned
as a hard ban on police use of the remote control aircraft has already
compromised to allow exceptions, including situations where police get a
warrant, or where there's an imminent risk of something like a
terrorist attack.
But bill sponsor Sen. Joe Negron and police couldn't agree Wednesday on
the use of drones as extra eyes in the sky at large-crowd events, such
as a football game.
Capt. Michael Fewless of the Orange County Sheriff's Office told the
Senate Community Affairs Committee that police would like to be able to
use drones to videotape big events like college bowl games, where there
is no expectation of privacy.
"If there was a problem and the drone is flying, and the crowd starts to
scatter, any evidence that's caught on that drone, on that camera,
cannot be used as evidence," Fewless said. "So if we have somebody in
there with the crowd scattering – their child gets grabbed by somebody
else and they take off in a different direction – even though we now
have the suspect on video, we cannot use the drone evidence under this
current language. And we don't want that."
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| Negron |
But Negron, R-Stuart, said monitoring crowds goes too far – and that
he'd vote against his own bill (SB 92) if it were changed to allow that.
"Can you imagine if King George had sent a drone to hover over the
Boston Tea Party to see what the American patriots were up to?" he asked
committee members. "It's not what this country was founded on."
The measure, without any changes to allow crowd control, was approved
unanimously, but has three remaining committee hearings before a floor
vote. And several lawmakers asked Negron to consider further changes.
"Yes, we have a responsibility to protect liberty, said Sen. Jack
Latvala, R-St. Petersburg. "But we also have a responsibility to
protect lives."
Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, asked if law enforcement officers
could gather evidence in a large crowd situation in another way, such as
from a helicopter.
Fewless said yes. "But it does appear to me to be a slippery slope when
you start saying we can't use it for a drone that's much cheaper for an
agency to operate compared to a helicopter that's much more expensive
to operate," he said.
"Protecting liberty is a slippery slope," Thrasher replied. "And I think that's what Sen. Negron's bill is trying to do."
The drones cost about $50,000 apiece, according to Fewless, and require
only the cost of gas, compared to $400 an hour to operate a helicopter.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office has two drones and three helicopters.
Police in Miami also have drones, although so far their use has been
limited. Negron said he wants to protect what he considers the right of
Floridians against unreasonable search and seizure before the use of
drones becomes "ubiquitous."
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| Workman |
Latvala said he'd like to see the drones used for surveillance of
marijuana grow fields, but Negron said that could be done with a regular
search warrant.
Florida would be the first state to pass such a ban on the use of
unmanned aircraft by police, according to the American Civil Liberties
Union, which supports Negron's bill.
A House companion bill (HB 119) by Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne,
who represents Brevard County, comes up Thursday for the first time in the House Criminal Justice
Subcommittee.
TOP PHOTO: Orange County Sheriff's Office personnel pose with a drone. Credit: OCSO
