As reported by Patch.com, the Portsmouth Police Department was given $75,000 of federal taxpayer money in order to purchase seven new drones, bringing their new total number of unmanned flying surveillance devices to eight.
“It’s the future of law enforcement”, said Portsmouth police Lt. Chris Cummings about the drones, according to the article. The drones reportedly feature infrared cameras, high-powered lights to illuminate crime scenes, a powerful 30X zoom camera, and speakers to communicate with people on the ground during emergency situations. Police officials claim that they will be used for crime scenes, investigations, crowd control, and other safety hazards. They could easily be used to spy on innocent civilians in a multitude of ways, of course.
Are drones legal?
Our initial research into the legality of the use of surveillance drones by law enforcement in New Hampshire seems to indicate that they may not be legal. In general, the cities and towns in New Hampshire cannot do anything unless the state government passes a law specifically allowing them to do it. Additionally, as per state law, “Neither the state of New Hampshire nor its political subdivisions shall engage in surveillance on any public ways of the state or its political subdivisions.” According to Title XX Chapter 236, surveillance of public roadways is illegal (at least for the purposes of determining a vehicle’s ownership or occupants) unless otherwise specified by state law. Regardless, the 4th amendment to the US Constitution forbids surveillance in the absence of a warrant for each specific use, and the US Constitution is the highest power when it comes to conflicting laws. As of the time of this writing, it remains unclear whether another state law specifically allows for the use of drones by local police.
How do citizens feel about the drones?
On Monday, ‘Citizens Count – NH’ published a Facebook post mentioning the new addition to the police force on New Hampshire’s seacoast. The post has 177 comments at the time of this writing, nearly all of which appear to come from locals who strongly disapprove of the drones being used by politicians and cops. Among the comments were:
“Stop wasting taxpayer money on spy toys. Big government wants to look in your windows and backyard.”
“Well, good thing I don’t frequent Portsmouth. That’s just about the scariest thing I’ve heard all day.”
Many commenters invoked ‘Big Brother’, the ultra-authoritarian government from Orwell’s novel, 1984, in which privacy and freedom no longer exist. Quite a few commenters made skeet references, as well. Using a shotgun with birdshot or an anti-drone net is probably not far off from what the founders would have done in this scenario. Though the Skynet projectile is a brilliant concept, traditional birdshot seems to be more effective for drone defense for the time being. image of Skynet shotgun ammo sold by BudK.com
As reported by SeacoastOnline.com, Portsmouth Police Chief Robert Merner assured the public that the drones will not be carrying weapons and killing citizens because the state law has not allowed for that (yet).
Portsmouth is not the first city to allow its police department to use drones for surveillance or enforcement. As of 2018, 600 police departments in the US utilized the devices, according to Pogo.org. We expect every large department in the US to utilize drones by 2025.
The Liberty Block has warned multiple times in the past about the increasingly powerful and abundant surveillance programs used by law enforcement in New Hampshire and around the US. As drones grow in popularity among government agencies, politicians, and cops, expect to have an increasing number of the flying surveillance devices helping politicians and cops ‘keep people safe’ in every corner of your town. If you are one of those strange people who values freedom or privacy, contact your State Representative and Senator and message Governor Sununu with your thoughts.
