Want to throw a barbecue in NYC this weekend? The NYPD's got you covered – with drones.
According to AP, the city plans to pilot the unmanned aircraft in response to complains about large gatherings over labor day weekend – including private events.
"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," said assistant NYPD Commissioner, Kaz Daughtry.
Privacy advocates, and anyone who's not down with bullshit police surveillance, naturally flipped their lid at the announcement.
"It’s a troubling announcement and it flies in the face of the POST Act," said privacy and technology strategist Daniel Schwarz of the NY Civil Liberties Union, referring to a 2020 city law that requires the NYPD to let people know about their surveillance tactics. "Deploying drones in this way is a sci-fi inspired scenario."
Mayor Eric Adams, no surprise, wants the NYPD to embrace the "endless" potential of drones, citing Israel's use of them after visiting last week.
Privacy advocates say that regulations aren't sufficient to deploy mass drone surveillance, and opens the door to spying that would be illegal if conducted by a human cop.
"One of the biggest concerns with the rush to roll out new forms of aerial surveillance is how few protections we have against seeing these cameras aimed at our backyards or even our bedrooms," said Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP).
According to the report, approximately 1,400 police departments nationwide are using drones in some form, according to the ACLU.