California Court docket Ruling on Police Drone Footage

Tony Webster [CC BY-SA 4.0]

California Appellate Court docket’s Choice Impacts Public Entry to Police Drone Footage

by DRONELIFE Workers Author Ian J. McNabb

Final week, a California appellate courtroom dominated that video footage from police drones collected in response to 911 calls shouldn’t be mechanically exempt from public report. The choice by the California Court docket of Attraction for the Fourth District got here in a response to a journalist’s try to realize entry to drone footage taken as a part of the Chula Vista Police Division’s “Drones as First Responders” program, the primary of its form within the nation.

After the journalist, Arturo Castañares of La Prensa, sued the division, the trial courtroom dominated that Chula Vista police might withhold all footage as a result of the movies had been exempt from disclosure as legislation enforcement investigatory information below the California Public Data Act, resulting in an enchantment.

The appellate courtroom held that drone footage was not categorically exempt from public disclosure, as drones is perhaps used to reply to non-crime occasions that also warranted a 911 name (for instance, a mountain lion roaming a residential road). After they despatched the choice again to trial courtroom, they instructed that every particular person video needs to be examined as as to whether a criminal offense truly occurred, after which the movies might be launched to the general public following the CPRA on a case-to-case foundation.

This case serves to indicate the issue of integrating new applied sciences into present reporting mechanisms, requiring California police departments fascinated by DFR applications to type by way of their very own footage to make the video of non-criminal 911 responses publicly obtainable. Nevertheless, the choice was welcomed by many privateness advocates, who argued that the police drone footage needs to be topic to the purview of civilian oversight, like different information generated by legislation enforcement.

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Ian McNabb is a employees author based mostly in Boston, MA. His pursuits embrace geopolitics, rising applied sciences, environmental sustainability, and Boston Faculty sports activities.

Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, knowledgeable drone providers market, and a fascinated observer of the rising drone trade and the regulatory surroundings for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles centered on the business drone house and is a world speaker and acknowledged determine within the trade.  Miriam has a level from the College of Chicago and over 20 years of expertise in excessive tech gross sales and advertising for brand new applied sciences.
For drone trade consulting or writing, E mail Miriam.

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