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.”

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1682 years ago

    Is it illegal to have house parties in NYC? Why is the NYPD busting up keggers like campus police?

    • downpunxx
      link
      fedilink
      212 years ago

      It becomes illegal when there are too many people there, or there is violence, underage drinking, drug usage, and if it’s too loud, the attendees are parking in the street blocking traffic, fire risks all sorts of shit

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        34
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        They are not responding to complains, they are searching themselves.

        EDIT: my eyes. They are responding. Still very wierd. Crowd itself is not a crime, article 20 of DoHR says so.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        272 years ago

        Those sound like things they need a warrant to learn about in a place with a reasonable expectation of privacy.

      • Wookie
        link
        fedilink
        252 years ago

        Are they doing this in white, affluent communities?

        • Stoneykins [any]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          152 years ago

          Only in the context of like, fire safety. You can’t have more people in a building than it is designed to safely hold.

          Of course, cops use this safety regulation as an excuse to control people and be dicks…

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            242 years ago

            They say ‘if a caller reports a large crowd, they’ll send a drone’, not ‘if a crime is reported’. That’s still surveillance, being in a large crowd isn’t a crime by itself.

          • wagoner
            link
            fedilink
            English
            42 years ago

            It was an incomplete article that did not properly explain what the supposed legitimate issue is.

      • Uranium3006
        link
        fedilink
        132 years ago

        So the cops and fuck with your backyard party if you smoke a joint?