Fighting crime in progress is one thing, but surveilling citizens is quite another.
I’m with you there.
Best to You and Yours.
Do you support drones along the border to enhance border security and interdict smuggling? Do you support drones off our coast for the same reason?
I think drones can make sense in specific situations, but you could make a good argument that drones along the border would unfairly intrude on persons who live near the border.
For specific uses - tracking criminal suspects instead of several surveillance units being needed they seem to be a good fit. It would save taxpayers lots of money. I also agree that non-stop 24/7 drone coverage for no articulated reason would violate the spirit of the constitution.
This is one of those difficult issues that will require conservatives to articulate reasonable exceptions or we will lose the arguments. I don’t think we can fall back to a blanket negative response. Drones would definitely be the best way to patrol the northern border with Canada and there are lots of spots on the southwest border where they would be extremely effective.
I think the recent case law on police placing GPS trackers on vehicles in public places seems to indicate that the courts may view some drone use as an unreasonable intrusion on privacy requiring a warrant if it is targeted against an individual and does not involve the border.