Shortly before Labor Day weekend, the New York Police Department announced its intention to deploy drones for monitoring potential disruptions at parties and similar large gatherings. Some privacy advocates have expressed concerns that this practice could potentially breach local surveillance laws.

Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence goes on to argue that the NYPD’s recent adoption of drones poses a significant threat to our civil rights and the integrity of our democracy.

Mayor Eric Adams, who also happens to be a former police captain, says that he fully embraces the endless potential of police using drones.

At what point is he going to embrace the reality that this type of aerial surveillance is intrusive? The police will be looking into our backyards, our bedroom windows, and all else from a vantage point that, what, only birds previously enjoyed. How is that acceptable? How is that constitutional? How does it not violate the Fourth Amendment by being an unreasonable search and seizure? Don’t we have privacy rights or did they just fly out of the window because of technological advancements?

I say, ‘No, we still have these rights in place.’ The U.S. Supreme Court, of course, has yet to say anything on it, and in the meantime, apparently law enforcement is saying that they don’t give a damn. Then again, why should they? It’s we the people who are the ones who have to pay to settle the litany of lawsuits against law enforcement for violating individual civil rights.

They really have no skin in the game. So while the NYPD surveils us from all angles, we’re left watching our civil rights die, and democracy with it.