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View Full Version : Police are now using drones to apprehend suspects and administer non-lethal force: A police ch




Danke
11-26-2015, 07:54 PM
Police are now using drones to apprehend suspects and administer non-lethal force: A police chief weighs in


Drones have been used in the military, for commercial purposes, and for personal use, yet rules surrounded registration and laws remain vague. American law enforcement is now integrating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the police force. In North Dakota, a recent bill allows for non-lethal drone use on police drones (for example, using rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray).

Reactions have been mixed, and concerns are surfacing. TechRepublic spoke to Michael D. Reitan, Chief of Police for the West Fargo Police Department, about how he sees the use of drones impacting law enforcement.


North Dakota is the first state to legally allow drone use in the police. How did this come about?

To be "allowed" to do it is incorrect. The statue, actually, is restrictive. Prior to this, there were no restrictions on how law enforcement could use unmanned aerial systems in North Dakota other than the rules set by FAA. What representative Becker in Bismark wanted to do was highly restrict how law enforcement used drones in the public. It essentially eliminated the possibility of law enforcement using a drone except when we had a warrant to use them. That's certainly more restrictive than any form of technology that's available to law enforcement including helicopters, pole-mounted cameras, the officers' personal observations, even. So the intent of the law, introduced by Representative Becker, was to restrict law enforcement practices.

What the North Dakota Police Officers' Association, aerial law enforcement officers, and even some House and Senate representatives did was ask for amendments that were more reasonable than what was an accepted use of unmanned aerial systems. They allowed us to use them much as we use any other form of surveillance now. It's within the guidelines of the FAA and other court cases that restrict how law enforcement conduct surveillance or the 'plain view' conditions. If something is deemed in plain view, we're in a legal position to observe whatever is taking place. Through the course of these negotiations, one of the things that Representative Becker had indicated was that drones were not to be armed in any fashion.

What are the reactions among law enforcement about drones being armed?

Some in the law enforcement community, but not all, think there may be a time where it may be appropriate to have non-lethal weapons on a drone--such things as tear gas, pepper spray, etc., where a drone will be able to fly into a location where somebody is firing from a concealed position. Or a barricaded person in the drone would be able to drop a canister of pepper spray or tear gas to get a person to come out of hiding. At no time was law enforcement looking to have a firearm mounted on a drone or a missile or anything like that. The primary purpose of unmanned aerial system used in law enforcement is for search and rescue.

What are the primary uses of drones in law enforcement?

They can locate wanted subjects, or reconstruct crime scenes or motor vehicle crash scenes. They can respond to natural or manmade disasters where we need a quick aerial analysis of what's going on. We have a couple situations up here, up in Nelson County, where individuals who've made some threats against law enforcement have barricaded themselves into their farm. The Nelson County sheriffs, at times, requested the board of patrol to do a flyover of the farm with an unmanned aerial vehicle to see what was going on. The sheriff could've done that with a helicopter or an airplane and there wouldn't have been too much said about it. But being a unmanned aerial system, there was a lot of squawk over it.

How are North Dakota's rules different from other states?

Each state has an opportunity to assess rules if they want to. If you checked your home state, there's nothing in place other than what's set by FAA or through case law, through the court. There's some state law on surveillance, but it's going to be encompassing all forms of observation, not just drones.

Can you talk about some specific cases using drones?

In the city of Grand Forks, there was a fatality accident recently. They asked the sheriff to fly their drone over the crash scene so they could capture the video image of the scene as soon after the crash as possible for later reconstruction.

One situation here in North Dakota, a few years back, would be a perfect example of a drone being invaluable. A prisoner transport bus stopped at rest stop in a rural area west of Fargo. One of the prisoners jumped from the van and ran into a cornfield nearby. If we'd been able to quickly dispatch a law enforcement agency with the drone, we could have put drone over the cornfield and caught the person in a relatively short period of time because of the ability to look down into the cornfield. It's much clearer to look down than to look across. What ended up happening was that this person was on the run from field to field for a couple of days. Finally, they had it pretty well figured out where this person was hiding in the cornfield. The solution the sheriff came up with was that they began harvesting the corn. The farmer contacted a bunch of neighbors, and the harvesting started at a couple different parts of the field. At each combine, they placed an armed sheriff's deputy and they harvested the corn until the subject finally surrendered. So certainly a significant use of resources and expense that easily could have been resolved in a matter of hour or two of searching with a UAV.

More: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/police-now-using-drones-apprehend-120002085.html