Drone Talking Points

Drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Drone Talking Points
Fact Sheet and Talking Points
1. Privacy: Drones don’t just target “people who do bad things”; drones monitor
everyone. Drone technology will allow ambient and persistent surveillance:
surveillance will be conducted everywhere at all times, archived indefinitely, and
impossible either for residents to avoid or for police to exclusively target
individual criminal suspects.
2. Safety: Drones have serious safety issues. Commercial airliners have had to be
diverted from runways in mid-landing due to the unregulated and reckless
presence of a drone aircraft, and technologists have hacked drones using off-theshelf
equipment available to anyone.
3. Police abuses and profiling: Drones could exacerbate the use of arbitrary
group criteria by law enforcement to target vulnerable communities. The use of
drones will likely increase racial, religious, and other kinds of biased police
profiling already pervading local enforcement of immigration laws, arrests for
low-level victimless crimes, and intelligence collection.
4. Police militarization: Police agencies around the country have increasingly
bought and used military equipment and training, as well as surveillance
technology—like drones—developed for military uses. But Americans are not
the enemy.
5. Corporate influence: Not content to rest with killing of hundreds (perhaps
thousands) of civilians overseas and escalating international conflict, drone
manufacturers are seeking to expand their market by actively lobbying officials
to expand surveillance of Americans at home.
6. First Amendment: Drones have a chilling effect on the exercise of First
Amendment activities because people could be recorded at all times in public.
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Non-violent social movements have long faced suppression in the US, including
most recently the Tea Party and Occupy movements. Potential participants in
future movements could grow reluctant to attend meetings or events,
intimidated by the prospect of the government tracking their participation.
7. Fiscal Responsibility: Drones are not the financial panacea that law
enforcement agencies may claim. Even if initially offset by federal grants, they
will impose future costs on municipalities for maintenance and staffing, while
continuing to contribute to our growing federal budget deficit.
8. Public Discourse: Drones have been deployed in a rushed fashion, without
adequate public discussion, due to the dominance of corporate interests
including weapons contractors and drones manufacturers and inaction by
Congress.
9. Overseas Drones: Overseas, the CIA has disregarded even the most meager
legal standards, leaving little reason to believe that local law enforcement’s use
of drones will respect constitutional and legal standards. Drones are used as
killing machines, exacerbating America’s poor relations in the Middle East and
fueling the recruitment of terror networks.
1. PRIVACY
Fighting the privacy encroachments enabled by drone surveillance is a trans-partisan
interest. The majority of states have introduced legislation to regulate the use of drones,
and sponsors of the legislation include Republican, Democrat, Green, and Libertarian
officeholders. 1
Drone surveillance is arguably unconstitutional based on Supreme Court Fourth
Amendment precedent such as Kyllo v. United States. However, courts move much slower
than technology, meaning that even if courts would rule that drone surveillance is
unconstitutional, it will be years before such a ruling takes effect. 2
Drones can be outfitted with sophisticated software enabling thermal imaging, 3 facial
recognition 4 , and the scanning of driver’s license plates.
1 As of April 2013, these measures include 31 state bills two municipal resolutions, , as well as one bill at the national level.
2 Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 34 (2001) (holding that the use of infrared technology to gather information about a
home violated the Fourth Amendment).
3 Draganfly Thermal Infrared Camera, DRAGANFLY INNOVATIONS, INC., http://www.draganfly.com/uavhelicopter/draganflyer-x6/features/flir-camera.php
(last visited Apr 23, 2013).
4 Lindsey Needham, FTC Wants Your Opinion on Facial Recognition Technology, PEOPLE’S BLOG FOR THE CONSTITUTION (Jan 2,
2012), http://www.constitutioncampaign.org/blog/?p=5286.
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Drones can be outfitted with special cameras, giving them the capability to “see through”
walls. 5
Most drones send the data they obtain in open and unencrypted broadcasts that can be,
and have been, intercepted by unintended recipients using common and inexpensive
technology. 6
Drone control uplinks are vulnerable to both malicious and unintentional interference. 7
Drones are substantively different from helicopters because they are quieter, cheaper, and
can remain aloft for extended periods, enabling pervasive and persistent dragnet
surveillance. While the technology available for drones, such as infrared and live-feed
cameras, exists in other places, they have never before been combined to create such a
powerful tool of surveillance.
2. SAFETY
Drones are unproven in American civilian airspace, and have only seen widespread use in
combat theaters, where they are the least safe class of aircraft currently in operation. 8
An FAA official testified to Congress that Customs and Border Protection has reported 52.7
drone accidents per 100,000 hours of flight time, seven times the civil aviation rate of 7.11
accidents per 100,000 hours. 9
Drones currently in production do not have the see-and-avoid capability of manned aircraft,
and tests of drone collision avoidance systems have thus far proven unsatisfactory to
resolve persisting safety concerns. 10
5 Domestic Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Drones, https://epic.org/privacy/drones/(last visited Apr. 2, 2013);
William Saletan, Nowhere to Hide, SLATE, (Sept 17, 2008),
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2008/09/nowhere_to_hide.html.
6 Noah Shachtman & David Axe, Most U.S. Drones Openly Broadcast Secret Feeds, WIRED, (Oct. 29, 2012),
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/hack-proof-drone/.
7 Geoffrey Ingersoll, The US Deliberately Crashed a Predator Drone into an Afghan Mountain, BUSINESS INSIDER (Sep. 8, 2012),
http://www.businessinsider.com/drone-piloted-by-ohioans-deliberately-crashed-in-afghanistan-2012- 9; Noah
Shachtman, Air Force Insists: Drone Cockpit Virus Just a ‘Nuisance’, WIRED, (Oct. 12, 2011),
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/drone-virus-nuisance/.
8 The Global Hawk, Predator, and Reaper drones have a combined rate of 9.31 accidents for every 100,000 hours of flight
time, more than triple the fleetwide average of 3.03. See Brendan McGarry, Drones Most Accident-Prone U.S. Air Force
Craft: BGOV Barometer, BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK (June 18, 2012), http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-
18/drones-most-accident-prone-u-dot-s-dot-air-force-craft-bgov-barometer.
9 FAA Vice President for Systems Operations Nancy Kalinowski, Statement to Subcommittee on the Role of Unmanned
Aerial Systems (July 15, 2010), available at http://www.faa.gov/news/testimony/news_story.cfm?newsId=11599.
10 Evaluation of Candidate Functions for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System II (TCAS II) on Unmanned Aerial
System (UAS), FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (Mar. 21, 2011), available at
http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/media/TCASonUAS_FinalReport.pdf(concluding system should not be
authorized for use on drones).
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Drones are prone to control uplink failure, which has led to incidents such as a Reaper
drone ‘going rogue’ and having to be shot down. 11
During a drone demonstration with a Texas sheriff, a new $300,000 drone accidentally
crashed into a SWAT team's Bearcat armored vehicle. 12
Drones also pose a safety risk to other aircraft including commercial airplanes. For example,
a drone came within 200 feet of a commercial flight over LaGuardia in March of 2013. 13
Due to safety concerns, the Federal Aviation Administration regulations require that
drones cannot be flown over “populated areas.” 14
3. Police abuses and racial profiling
The focus of local law enforcement resources and attention on people of color, 15
immigrants, 16 low-income people, 17 and activists 18 reflects biased policing, rather than an
evidence-based response to crime. The use of drones could continue and worsen this trend.
Expanded law enforcement capabilities often invite mission creep and grow pervasive and
entrenched. This phenomenon is readily demonstrated by fusion centers, which serve as
focal points for dragnet surveillance, yet routinely focus on drug crimes rather than the
national security purposes that they were ostensibly created for. 19
11 The US Deliberately Crashed a Predator Drone into an Afghan Mountain, BUSINESS INSIDER (Sep. 8, 2012),
http://www.businessinsider.com/drone-piloted-by-ohioans-deliberately-crashed-in-afghanistan-2012- 9; Noah
Shachtman, Air Force Insists: Drone Cockpit Virus Just a ‘Nuisance’, WIRED (Oct. 12, 2011),
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/drone-virus-nuisance/.
12 Sam Biddle, Police Drone Crashes into Police, GIZMODO, http://gizmodo.com/5890507/police-drone-crashes-intopolice(last
visited Apr 23, 2013); Kashmir Hill, The Drone that Crashed into a S.W.A.T. Team's Tank, FORBES (Mar. 5, 2012),
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/03/05/the-drone-that-crashed-into-a-s-w-a-t-teams-tank/.
13 Aaron Cooper, Drone Came within 200 Feet of Airliner over New York, CNN (Mar. 5, 2013),
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/04/us/new-york-drone-report.
14 FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, (Pub. L. No. 112-95,126 Stat. 11)
15 Center for Constitutional Rights, Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., http://ccrjustice.org/floyd (last visited Apr. 2,
2013); More About Suspicious Activity Reporting, AMER. CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION (Jan. 18, 2013), http://www.aclu.org/spyfiles/more-about-suspicious-activity-reporting.
16 Stories from the History of U.S. Government Surveillance, TRACKED IN AMERICA, http://www.trackedinamerica.org (last
visited Apr 23, 2013).
17 Elec. Privacy Info. Ctr., Poverty & Privacy, EPIC.ORG, https://epic.org/privacy/poverty/ (last visited Apr. 23, 2013).
18 More About State and Local Police Spying, AMER. CIVIL LIBERTIES UNIONS (Jan. 18, 2013), http://www.aclu.org/spyfiles/more-about-state-and-local-police-spying.
19 Federal Support for and Involvement in State and Local Fusion Centers, UNITED STATES SENATE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON
INVESTIGATIONS, COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, (Oct. 3, 2012), available at
http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/download/?id=49139e81-1dd7-4788-a3bb-d6e7d97dde04 (“Of the 386 unclassified HIRs
that DHS eventually published over the 13-month period reviewed by the Subcommittee investigation, a review found
close to 300 of them had no discernable connection to terrorists, terrorist plots or threats.”); Nadia Kayyali, Fusion
Centers: budgetary salt on a constitutional wound, PEOPLE’S BLOG FOR THE CONSTITUTION (Oct. 4, 2012)
http://www.constitutioncampaign.org/blog/?p=10141.
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Similarly, the increasingly routine use of SWAT teams to execute warrants unrelated to the
violent and volatile situations they were designed to confront echoes this trend. 20
Drones will likely increase harassment of people of color already targeted by “Stop and
Frisk” programs. 21 Persistent surveillance will increase the ability of law enforcement to
selectively cite innocuous and lawful behavior as a justification for stops and frisks based
on race and class.
In 2005, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) took over the drone program along the
border, stating that the “program focuses operations on the CBP priority mission of antiterrorism
by helping to identify and intercept potential terrorists and illegal cross-border
activities.” A boondoggle in the making, tens of billions of dollars began to flow into the
DHS for border security, and the CBP program operates without proper oversight, training,
and places everyone's civil liberties at risk. 22
Migrant deaths at the border in 2012 rose 27% from the previous year to 477, the second
highest number ever reported. 23 At the same time, apprehensions of individuals attempting
to cross the border have dropped by 77% since 1999. 24 Drone use at the border has the
potential to target economic migrants in an unprecedented way, leading to even more
deaths, particularly since border patrol drones specifically combine the military technology
used overseas and technology intended for domestic surveillance. 25
4. MILITARIZATION OF POLICE
Drones use technology imported from the battlefield and represent the latest example of
the militarization of local police. 26
20 Radley Balko, Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America, CATO INST. (July 17, 2006),
http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/balko_whitepaper_2006.pdf.
21 Center for Const. Rts., Stop and Frisk: The Human Impact, (July, 2012), available at http://stopandfrisk.org/the-humanimpact-report.pdf.
22 Tom Barry, Drones Over the Homeland, INTERNATIONAL POLICY REPORT (Apr 2013) available at
http://www.ciponline.org/images/uploads/publications/IPR_Drones_over_Homeland_Final.pdf.
23 Stuart Anderson, How many more deaths? The Moral Case for a Temporary Worker Program, NAT’L FOUND. FOR AMER. POL’Y
(March 2013) available at http://www.nfap.com/pdf/NFAP Policy Brief Moral Case For a Temporary Worker Program
March 2013.pdf
24 Id.
25 Declan McCullagh, DHS built domestic surveillance tech into Predator Drones, C-NET (Mar. 2, 2013),
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57572207-38/dhs-built-domestic-surveillance-tech-into-predator-drones/
26 Adam Clark Estes, Local Police Departments' Favorite War Machines, THE ATLANTIC WIRE (Dec. 5, 2011),
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/12/local-police-departments-favorite-war-machines/45733/ (“News of
the little-known Pentagon program that practically gave away $500 Million worth of retired military equipment to local
police departments last year (2010) prompts the question: What the heck are cops actually doing with tanks and grenade
launchers?”); Brad Lockwood, The Militarizing of Local Police, FORBES (Nov. 30, 2011),
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bradlockwood/2011/11/30/the-militarizing-of-local-police/ (“Department of Homeland
Security grants of $3 billion per year” lead to exorbitant expenses. “Items such as BearCats are deemed “necessary tools”
to quality for federal grants (just cite disaster response or crime fighting to ensure they are covered by assorted
programs)”); zunguzungu, A Snapshot of Your Security-Industrial Complex, ZUNGUZUNGU (May 1, 2012),
http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/a-snapshot-of-your-security-industrial-complex/ (Alameda County
Sheriff deployed a tank-like armored vehicle for May Day 2012 protests in Oakland. The tank was purchased in a no-bid
contract from Xe (also known as Blackwater).
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Military drones have been used overseas for unlawful and extrajudicial targeted killings of
foreign nationals and US Citizens, 27 have killed hundreds of civilians, 28 including children,
and have jeopardized US national security by furthering anti-American sentiment and
destabilizing communities that are bombed. 29
Drones are easily affixed with lethal and “less-lethal” weapons. 30 And assurances that they
will not be armed domestically lack credibility, given recurring violations of supposedly
limiting principles constraining their use to kill Americans abroad. 31
A sheriff's department in the Houston area was one of the first domestic law enforcement
agencies to have a drone. Its drone can carry a 12-gauge shotgun and a grenade launcher,
and officials have confirmed plans to arm the drone with rubber bullets, Tasers, and tear
gas. 32
Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel said the Montgomery County (TX) sheriff’s office was “open
to the idea of adding non-lethal weapons like tear gas, rubber bullets or Taser-style rounds
to the drone.” 33
5. FIRST AMENDMENT / PROTECTED SPEECH
Persistent and ambient surveillance, coupled with currently expanding programs to
monitor and criminalize nonviolent activism, threatens to chill First Amendment-protected
association. 34
27 Michael Boyle, Obama’s Drone Wars and the Normalization of Extrajudicial Murder, THE GUARDIAN (June 11, 2012),
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/11/obama-drone-wars-normalisation-extrajudicial-killing; Living
Under Drones: Numbers, STANFORD INT’L. HUMAN RTS. & CONFLICT RESOL. CLINIC, http://www.livingunderdrones.org/numbers
(last visited May 8, 2013).
28 Living Under Drones: Numbers, STANFORD INT’L. HUMAN RTS. & CONFLICT RESOL. CLINIC,
http://www.livingunderdrones.org/numbers (last visited May 8, 2013).
29 Steve Coll, Kill or Capture, THE NEW YORKER (Aug. 2, 2012),
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/08/kill-or-capture.html; Jefferson Morley, What Drones Sow,
SALON.COM (June 12, 2012), http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/hatred_what_drones_sow/; David Kilcullen & Andrew
McDonald Exum, Death from Above, Outrage Down Below, NEW YORK TIMES (May 16, 2009),
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/opinion/17exum.html?pagewanted=all.
30 Danger Info, Citizen Drone Warfare, YOUTUBE (Dec 10, 2012), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jplh7uatr-E;
aranger45, Weapon of the Future, LIVE LEAK,(Apr. 25, 2012), http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=78b_1335405606; Thyrsoid,
R/C Helicopter with .45 Caliber Handgun, LIVE LEAK (Dec. 10, 2008).
31 Shahid Buttar, Killing us softly, PEOPLE’S BLOG FOR THE CONSTITUTION (March 13, 2013)
http://www.constitutioncampaign.org/blog/?p=12499.
32 Groups Concerned Over Arming of Domestic Drones, CBS LOCAL—DC (May 23, 2012),
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/05/23/groups-concerned-over-arming-of-domestic-drones.
33 Hannah Yi, Tase of Our Lives, THEDAILY.COM (Mar. 12, 2012), http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/03/12/031212news-armed-drones-1-2/.
34 National Lawyers Guild, Developments in the Policing of National Special Security Events (2013), available at
http://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/NLG Report Developments in the Policing of NSSEs at 2012 RNC and DNC.pdf.
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The use of non-lethal weapons (e.g., tear gas, rubber bullets, and other weapons) on drones
for crowd control purposes threatens to chill First Amendment-protected assembly. 35
Local law enforcement agencies have frequently violated constitutional limits by scrutinizing
groups from across the political spectrum engaging in protected First Amendment activity, 36
including anti-war groups, 37 Second Amendment rallies, third-party voters and Muslim lobbyists,
treating these groups as potential national security threats.
6. FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY / COST
Drones will not necessarily save money. The current models of drones available are not
equivalent to helicopters, which can be flown in any weather for much longer periods of
time.
Drones’ efficacy in performing non-law enforcement functions is severely undermined by
technological limitations. 38 Worse, as those technological limitations lessen, drones become
even more suited for extremely invasive surveillance.
Assessments of the cost of drones do not generally include the cost of insurance for a
technology with 7 times the crash rate as civilian airplanes, as well as training, operation
and maintenance costs. 39
Most grants from the Department of Homeland Security for drones do not cover the entire
cost of a drone, and the rest of the money has to be reprioritized from other areas.
7. PUBLIC DISCOURSE and CORPORATE INFLUENCE
35 Groups Concerned Over Arming of Domestic Drones, CBS LOCAL—DC (May 23, 2012),
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/05/23/groups-concerned-over-arming-of-domestic-drones.; Buck Sexton, Aerial
‘Shadowhawk’ Police Drones Can Now Deploy Tasers and Tear Gas, THE BLAZE (Mar. 12, 2012),
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/03/12/want-to-see-the-aerial-drone-police-could-soon-deploy-in-your-town/.
36
Shahid Buttar, COINTELPRO 2.0, HUFFINGTON POST (Aug. 2, 2010), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shahidbuttar/cointelpro-20_b_664943.html.
37
Documents Shed New Light on Surveillance of Peace Activists, AMER. CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION (Oct. 12, 2006),
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/documents-shed-new-light-pentagon-surveillance-peace-activists; Raquel
Ronzone, Howard Zinn: (A) Anti-War Activist and Historian or (B) extremist, DAILY KOS (Oct. 19, 2012),
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/19/1147007/-Howard-Zinn-A-anti-war-activist-and-historian-or-Bextremist.
38 Homeland Security: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Border Surveillance, CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE (July 8, 2010),
available at https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RS21698.pdf; Eric Beidel, Army Pilots: Flying Drones Tougher than It
Looks, NATIONAL DEFENSE MAGAZINE (Feb. 2011),
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2011/February/Pages/ArmyPilotsFlyingDronesTougherThanItLoo
ks.aspx; Sara Peck, Civilian Drones Have Yet to Pass Weather Test, NATIONAL DEFENSE MAGAZINE (Aug. 2008).
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2008/August/Pages/CivilianDronesHaveYettoPassWeatherTest.aspx.
But see Edwin Kee, Pilotless Robot Plane Smart Enough to Navigate Through Bad Weather, UBERGIZMO (July 9, 2012),
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/07/pilotless-robot-plane-smart-enough-navigate-bad-weather/.
39 FAA Vice President for Systems Operations Nancy Kalinowski, Statement to Subcommittee on the Role of Unmanned
Aerial Systems (July 15, 2010), available at http://www.faa.gov/news/testimony/news_story.cfm?newsId=11599.
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The lobby group the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, along with
several drone manufacturers, spent at least $21,960,500 on lobbying in 2011 alone. 40
States are vying for the perceived economic benefits of becoming drone test sites without
discussing privacy implications.
8. OVERSEAS DRONES
Even potentially helpful domestic drone use is tainted by the largely civilian death toll
drones have had overseas. 41
The administration has secretly promulgated guidelines for the assassination of US citizens
abroad, under which it has killed at least four Americans, all without producing any public
evidence or justification, and while claiming to target only one of them. 42 This disregard for
constitutional restraints on killing and transparency leaves little reason to believe that the
Department of Justice would ensure local law enforcement’s use of drones abided by
constitutional and legal standards.
40 See First Street Research Group, Drones in U.S. Air Space: The Next Lobby Frontier (May 1, 2012),
http://firststreetresearch.cqpress.com/2012/05/01/drones-in-u-s-air-space-the-next-lobby-frontier/; Galius Publius,
Drone Industry Wrote the Legislation Governing Domestic Drone Use, AMERICABLOG (Feb. 17, 2012),
http://americablog.com/2012/02/drone-industry-wrote-the-legislation-governing-domestic-drone-use.html.
41 Living Under Drones: Numbers, STANFORD INT’L. HUMAN RTS. & CONFLICT RESOL. CLINIC,
http://www.livingunderdrones.org/numbers (last visited May 8, 2013) (“[D]rones have killed between 474 and 881
Pakistani civilians since 2004, out of 2,562 to 3,325 total deaths.”); See, also, Covert Drone War, BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIVE
JOURNALISM,
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/ (last visited May 7, 2013).
42 Glenn Greenwald, Chilling Legal Memo from Obama DOJ Justifies Assassination of US Citizens, THE GUARDIAN (Feb. 5, 2013),
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/05/obama-kill-list-doj-memo.
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