Court Upholds Domestic Drone Use in Arrest of American Citizen

[Earth_First]

A North Dakota court has preliminarily upheld the first-ever use of an unmanned drone to assist in the arrest of an American citizen.

A judge denied a request to dismiss charges Wednesday against Rodney Brossart, a man arrested last year after a 16-hour standoff with police at his Lakota, N.D., ranch. Brossart's lawyer argued that law enforcement's "warrantless use of [an] unmanned military-like surveillance aircraft" and "outrageous governmental conduct" warranted dismissal of the case, according to court documents obtained by U.S. News.

Court records state that last June, six cows wandered onto Brossart's 3,000 acre farm, about 60 miles west of Grand Forks. Brossart allegedly refused to return the cows, which led to a long, armed standoff with the Grand Forks police department. At some point during the standoff, Homeland Security, through an agreement with local police, offered up the use of an unmanned predator drone, which "was used for surveillance," according to the court documents.

Grand Forks SWAT team chief Bill Macki said in an interview that the drone was used to ensure Brossart and his family members, who were also charged, didn't leave the farm and were unarmed during the arresting raid.

http://mobile.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/08/02/court-upholds-domestic-drone-use-in-arrest-of-american-citizen

I'm shocked to see that this hasn't been posted here or LBN...

[Ikonoklast]

1. What difference would there have been between using a helicopter or fixed-wing

aircraft and a drone to surveille the property, besides one not being manned?

You have no right to the airspace over your property.

Guy is a thief, this is a non-story, they didn't need a warrant to see what is in plain sight.

[Earth_First]

2. Thief or not...

I do not want this equipment, which might I remind you, got it's start in the military in the hands of civilian law enforcement

What's the difference between a helicopter or fixedwing aircraft?

It's stealth ability to be noticed.

I'm not comfortable going down the militarizarion of law enforcement pathway.

[Ikonoklast]

3. I don't think they'll be wasting time randomly flying surveillencs drones around.

What you are against is a matter of form, the results would be the same whatever means was used to perform the snoop.

Whatever you do out in the public, even when still on your own property is open to the purview of anyone for any reason, at any time.

Tell me, what is the difference between the use of a drone vs. a manned aircraft for surveillence purposes?

The end results are exactly the same, and manned LEO aircraft currently overfly communities all the time.

You'd notice a Predator drone flying over your property, those things aren't exactly little.


http://www.nationalpost.com/news/1727876.bin?size=620x465