[brocklobsta]

Hmmm. Changes the scope of public view with a bird eye view.

Begs a bigger question about property ownership and airspace. How high off the land you own is yours? Is flying a drone over a fence the same as climbing a fence for the officer?

I’m all for using technology when proper guardrails are in place to prevent misuse

[zamalek]

Air rights differ from county to county, and even property to property in some counties. 500ft is a fair ballpark figure.

Either way, you don't need to be above a property to spy on it from the air, although I seriously doubt that type of restraint would be exercised by NYPD. A motivated lawyer might be able to get damages for unlawful search - but you'd be venturing into an area, er, volume where there is probably no precedent.

[thefurdrake]

Wasn't it the NYPD that bitched and moaned about having public oversight of their drone project because they "couldn't do their jobs while being watched" or something? I swear that was a thing a few years ago but I can't find the quote due to the internet being spammed with numerous clones of this article.

Edit/addition: Thoughts of that aside, I am fundamentally okay with the idea of police orgs using drones for something like this. Conceptually. I see this as a preferred outcome to "Annoying bitchy neighbor whines about totally legal backyard party, event #8962376340" where an officer has to physically go to the party, it's some level of disruptive, it wastes the officer's time, it wastes the partygoers' time... As long as the police are willing to provide an itemized list of every drone deployed, available publicly, with exact GPS pathing on an easily-viewed map.

[NoZebra120vClip]

I'm fundamentally okay with this, as long as every drone is duly equipped with a payload of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up", and deploys it at top volume, with noise cancellation for anything else that threatens to compete with the most sublime hit of 1987 and all time.

https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=TKFHVbEwTjaACHtf

[euroderf]

Does an NYPD drone just measure "bulk" noise, or does it become an excuse to smuggle in directional eavesdropping ?