A day after a small drone breached the White House security perimeter, President Obama said Tuesday that he wants federal guidelines to protect people from drone attacks and invasions of privacy.
“This is a broader problem,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with CNN. “We don’t really have any kind of regulatory structure at all for it.”
Early Monday, a 2-foot-long “quad copter” drone flew onto the White House grounds and crashed. Secret Service officials said a government employee called them several hours later and admitted the drone belonged to him, describing the security breach as an accident.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama were on a trip to India when the incident occurred.
Mr. Obama said the drone at the White House is similar to a model that could be purchased at Radio Shack, and said the incident highlights the need for clear rules governing their use.
“We don’t yet have the legal structures and the architecture both globally and within individual countries to manage them the way that we need to,” Mr. Obama said, adding that part of his job in his final two years in office “is seeing if we can start providing some sort of framework that ensures that we get the good and minimize the bad.”
The president said he has directed federal agencies to “figure out how we’re going to put an architecture in place that makes sure that these things aren’t dangerous and that they’re not violating people’s privacy.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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