Privacy Rights and Public Perception – What Didn’t Change in COVID
We came across an interesting article in Slate that highlights an example of one police department in Connecticut that sought to use drones to help flatten the curve in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic—allegedly by using drones equipped with tools that could monitor compliance with social distancing guidance and potential symptoms such as elevated temperature or heart rate. While the police department made clear that the program would not be used over private yards and would not use facial recognition technology, the department faced fierce public outcry and the program was shelved.
Privacy concerns continue to be a key issue for any local government agency looking to implement a drone program. It would be prudent for a local agency looking to use drones to adopt a drone policy to which its drone operations are subject. The policy should address privacy rights in particular. Failure to consider such a policy could lead to public-perception issues. Time and again we have seen that such public-perception problems mean the abrupt end to the agency’s drone program.