Wyoming lawmakers say police shouldn’t be allowed to use drones for random surveillance — the type that is conducted without warrants — and they’re taking legislative steps to rein in that power.
The Joint Judiciary Committee is hearing a proposed bill this week to ban police from using drones without a warrant. If the bill passes in the committee, the full Legislature could take up the measure in 2015, The Associated Press reported.
“Basically, what it does is it asks that before any law enforcement uses a drone for any kind of searches that they get a warrant based on probably cause,” said Linda Burt, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Wyoming, AP reported.
In California, a similar bill has passed the Legislature and is before Gov. Jerry Brown for signing.
Byron Oedekoven, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, said a bill mandating police get warrants for drone use doesn’t make sense, since the courts have already ruled that law enforcement can use airplanes without warrants, AP reported.
“What we have proposed is looking at this, saying, ’Let’s step back from paranoia and let’s look at drones from the standpoint of what can we do now with an airplane,’ ” he said, AP reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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