Maine Attorney General Resists Efforts To Limit Drone Surveillance

AUGUSTA—The attorney general is pushing back against meaningful limits on law enforcement use of drones, according to the ACLU of Maine. After hearing from both the ACLU and Attorney General Janet Mills, yesterday the Judiciary Committee deferred action on LD 236, a bill that would require the police to get a probable cause warrant before using drones to collect information about people in most cases.

"The attorney general's proposal falls miles short of protecting civil liberties. Letting law enforcement police themselves is not a meaningful restriction on surveillance under the Fourth Amendment," said Shenna Bellows, executive director of the ACLU of Maine. "Requiring the police to get a probable cause warrant before using drones to watch people is an absolute necessity if we are going to protect Mainers from overreaching police surveillance."

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