Charlottesville, VA First US City To Restrict Use Of Drones As 11 States Have Concerns About Spying

| WTF News |
The resistance to drones continues. 11 states are now considering blocking drone activity. This news comes as Charlottesville, VA became the first city “prohibiting information obtained from the domestic use of drones from being introduced into a Federal or State court” according to US News. Congress is also looking to take action to reduce drone strikes over all after the Justice Department released a memo outlining its “legal theory” for striking Americans without due process. The killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki’s 16 year old son born in Denver is also among the discussion topics as the public backlash against drones increases. More from CBS Seattle

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Lawmakers in at least 11 states are looking at plans to restrict the use of drones over their skies amid concerns the unmanned aerial vehicles could be exploited to spy on Americans. The American Civil Liberties Union says state legislators are proposing various restrictions on local authorities’ use of the technology. Concerns mounted after the Federal Aviation Administration began establishing safety standards for civilian drones, which are becoming increasingly affordable and small in size. Some police agencies have said the drones could be used for surveillance of suspects, search and rescue operations, and gathering details on damage caused by natural disasters. In Montana, a libertarian-minded state that doesn’t even let police use remote cameras to issue traffic tickets, Democrats and Republicans are banding together to back multiple proposals restricting drone use. They say drones, most often associated with overseas wars, aren’t welcome in Big Sky Country. “I do not think our citizens would want cameras to fly overhead and collect data on our lives,” Republican state Sen. Matthew Rosendale told a legislative panel on Tuesday. Rosendale is sponsoring a measure that would only let law enforcement use drones with a search warrant, and would make it illegal for private citizens to spy on neighbors with drones. The full Montana Senate endorsed a somewhat broader measure Tuesday that bans information collected by drones from being used in court. It also would bar local and state government ownership of drones equipped with weapons, such as stunning devices. The ACLU said the states won’t be able to stop federal agencies or border agents from using drones. But the Montana ban would not allow local police to use criminal information collected by federal drones that may be handed over in cooperative investigations. The drones could be wrongly used to hover over someone’s property and gather information, opponents said. “The use of drones across the country has become a great threat to our personal privacy,” said ACLU of Montana policy director Niki Zupanic. “The door is wide open for intrusions into our personal private space.” Other state legislatures looking at the issue include California, Oregon, Texas, Nebraska, Missouri, North Dakota, Florida, Virginia, Maine and Oklahoma. Read more

As the UK showed off mini-drones this week Sky News Photo