Last summer my wife and I attended an outdoor art festival in Westerville. Lots of people and there were police at all of the entry points. It felt safe.
In the evening as we were walking back to our car we heard a humming sound.
We couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until I looked up. A few hundred feet above flew a Westerville Police drone. Now, Columbus has jumped on the trend to limit your privacy in public for the sake of safety.
On November 18, the Columbus Police rolled out their new drone program with 14 pilots passing the FAA required certification. Seems like a logical step to better keep us safe from hurting each other, but remember that there is a price.
Our world is moving away from privacy at an alarming pace. The use of drones is just one symptom of the end of privacy as we know it.
You’re not stupid. Drones are a new piece of technology that (if used with intelligence) can and will pay dividends to our “quality of life.” The biggest conflict in using drones will always be the operator and the mission.
Having a drone quickly fly to the location of a 911 call so that officers can see what is going on before they arrive on scene? Makes sense.
Flying a drone over a crowd of people to sit at a distance and just watch?
No thank you. That’s where we need to draw a line. Take for example the use of drones in the city of Chula Vista, California.
They only use drones as a first responder to 911 calls. Better yet, their pilots accept the fact that their flight path for each call will also be posted online so that everyone is aware. That’s the transparency that you deserve in Columbus.
This technology is still new and will continue to evolve.
Ask your Columbus Police and city government how they will plan to make their use of drones:
1. Only for immediate police calls (no long-term surveillance), and
2. To publish flight logs online for everyone to view.
Transparency builds trust. This is our city and we should respect the privacy of everyone in addition to the need to keep us safe from each other.
