Drones Over America: Science Fiction or Reality?

Unmanned aircraft carrying cameras raise the prospect of a significant new avenue for the surveillance of American life. Many Americans have heard of these aircraft, commonly called “drones,” because of their use overseas in places like Afghanistan and Yemen. But drones are coming to America, and protections must be put in place to guard our privacy.

As technology is quickly becoming cheaper and more powerful, and interest in deploying drones among police departments is increasing around the country, our privacy laws need to be strengthened in order to ensure that this new technology will be used responsibly and consistently with democratic values.

States like Idaho and Virginia have already passed legislation to limit the use of drones in their states; Florida and Montana are also considering statewide drone legislation. Will Wyoming be the next state to enshrine individual privacy protections against drone surveillance into its statutes? We certainly hope so.

The ACLU released a report which outlines a set of protections that would help protect Americans’ privacy in the coming world of domestic drones. The report recommends that drones should not be deployed unless there are grounds to believe that they will collect evidence on a specific crime. If a drone will intrude on reasonable privacy expectations, a warrant should be required. The report also calls for restrictions on retaining images of identifiable people, as well as an open process for developing policies on how drones will be used.

Routine aerial surveillance in American life would profoundly change the character of public life in the United States. Rules must be put in place to ensure that we can enjoy the benefits of this new technology without bringing us closer to a “surveillance society” in which our every move is monitored, tracked, recorded, and scrutinized by the authorities.

>>Download<< the 2011 ACLU report Protecting Privacy From Aerial Surveillance: Recommendations for Government Use of Drone Aircraft.

Don't Do The Crime If You Can't Do The Time

Jordon Steffen’s March 2013 article in The Denver Post began with this sentence:

“The number of juveniles committed to the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections has dropped by 44 percent in seven years, the result of programs that have put more focus on rehabilitation than detention.”

Joshua Wolfson’s February 26 Casper Star Tribune article, “Wyoming locks away fewer juveniles, but still lags behind rest of nation,” states that even though Wyoming is jailing fewer children that it has in the past, Wyoming still detains more youth than any other state in the nation but South Dakota. While the rest of the nation has seen a steep decline in the rate of juvenile detention Wyoming has a youth detainment rate nearly twice the national average.

Not only is Colorado’s youth detention rate down; their juvenile justice system numbers are down in other areas:
• 28% decline in juvenile arrests
• 1,160 fewer juvenile court cases in the past year
• 13% decline in youth recidivism rates in 2012

Colorado’s elected officials made a unified and concentrated effort towards reforming their juvenile justice system and worked to bring Colorado to the forefront of the nationwide movement to provide youth with a system that is effective in guiding children to successful and productive lives.

The Colorado system uses a number of best practices techniques including:
• early intervention
• mentors
• mental health and substance abuse rehabilitation
• individual treatment plans for each juvenile

Youth corrections savings can now be moved into child welfare programs in order to provide services for at risk children as young as 5.

In order to achieve what Colorado and other states are accomplishing, a state must have not only a unified juvenile justice system, but elected officials that are engaged and knowledgeable about reform. Wyoming has neither.