A report released on Thursday by the Justice Department’s
internal office of the inspector general revealed that the DoJ
has invested roughly $4.9 million since 2004 on unmanned aerial
systems (UAS) that allow for law enforcement agencies to conduct
surveillance from the sky during certain missions.
Robert Mueller, then the head of the FBI, acknowledged only this past June that surveillance
drones have been deployed within the United States.
“It’s very seldom used and generally used in a particular
incident where you need the capability,” he said at a
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
But with this week’s report, the department’s inspector
general determined that the FBI is in need of an updated set of
guidelines to govern the way unmanned systems are deployed with
respect to the constitutionally-guaranteed protection from
unreasonable searches.
The report revealed that while the FBI has deployed drones
during the last several years, the agency failed to develop new
guidelines and has instead relied on the same standards in place
for traditional, manned aircraft.
The auditor found that
although several Justice Department entities have either used
drones or plan to do so soon, they’ve refused to adopt updated
privacy standards.
Although the FBI is the only federal agency found to have
used drones domestically, the auditor said that the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) plans to deploy
unmanned aircraft, and that the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) and the United States Marshals Service (USMS) have acquired
unmanned aerial vehicles.
“While both the FBI and ATF have developed procedures
guiding how to receive approval to operate UAS,
officials with both components told us they did not believe that
there was a need to develop specialized UAS privacy
protocols,” the auditor wrote. “During our
review, FBI and ATF officials stated that they did not believe
there was any practical difference between how UAS collect
evidence through aerial surveillance as compared to manned
aircraft. Consequently, we found that the FBI
has been applying its existing aerial surveillance policies to
guide how agents should use UAS.”
Citing the vast technological advances that drones
have over manned aircraft, the auditor said new privacy policies
should be issued to protect the privacy of
Americans.
“Unlike manned aircraft, UAS can be used in close
proximity to a home and, with longer-lasting power systems, may
be capable of flying for several hours or even days at a time,
raising unique concerns about privacy and the collection of
evidence with UAS,” the report reads.
“Considering that multiple DOJ components are
using or have the potential to use UAS, we believe the Office of
the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG), which has responsibility
within DOJ for formulating cross-component law enforcement
policies, should consider the need for a DOJ-wide policy
regarding UAS uses that could have significant privacy or other
legal implications.”
Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil
Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy & Technology Project,
issued a statement in response applauding the inspector general’s
findings while attacking the Justice Department for its failure
to adopt new standards specific to unmanned vehicles.
“No agency, including the FBI, should deploy domestic
surveillance drones without first having strong privacy
guidelines in place. We’re encouraged by the inspector general’s
recognition that drones have created a need for privacy policies
covering aerial surveillance. We urge the Justice Department to
make good on its plans to develop privacy rules that protect
Americans from another mass surveillance technology. Congress,
however, should pass legislation introduced by Reps. Ted Poe and
Zoe Lofgren that requires law enforcement to get judicial
approval before deploying drones, and explicitly forbids the
arming of these machines,” Stanley said.
According to the auditor’s findings, the FBI used roughly 80
percent of the $3.7 million the Justice Department has invested
in drones since 2006. Additionally, the Office of Justice
Programs (OJP) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing
Services (COPS) have handed out around $1.2 million in grants to
seven law enforcement agencies and non-profit organizations
across the US that used the money to purchase small drones. The
unmanned vehicles used by all agencies are described as “small,”
by the DoJ’s definition, meaning they weigh less than 55 lbs.
Copyright: RT