New Data Revealed Regarding Use of Aircraft Over US Protesters

New Data Revealed Regarding Use of Aircraft Over US Protesters

protesters

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Demonstrations gathering around the US to protest the death of George Floyd were surveilled from the air. Resources usually used to patrol the border for smugglers and illegal crossings were deployed by the Department of Homeland Security over 15 cities where demonstrators were held.

Customs and Border Protection data reveals that the DHS had deployed helicopters, airplanes and drones, logging at least 270 hours of surveillance, far more than previously reported, according to nytimes.com.  

The revelations come amid a fierce national debate over police tactics and the role that federal law enforcement and military forces should play in controlling or monitoring demonstrations. 

Aircraft filmed demonstrations in Dayton, Ohio; New York City; Buffalo and Philadelphia, among other cities, sending video footage in real time to control centers managed by Air and Marine Operations, a branch of Customs and Border Protection. The footage was then fed into a digital network managed by the Homeland Security Department, called “Big Pipe,” which can be accessed by other federal agencies and local police departments for use in future investigations, according to senior officials with Air and Marine Operations.

The department’s dispatching of unmanned aircraft over protests in Minneapolis last month sparked a congressional inquiry and widespread accusations that the federal agency had infringed on the privacy rights of demonstrators. The Air Force inspector general is investigating the operation of reconnaissance planes in Minneapolis and in Washington. The National Guard in the District of Columbia has already reached a preliminary conclusion that a lack of clarity in commands led to one of its medical evacuation helicopters swooping low on protesters in the nation’s capital. 

Officials at the Customs and Border Protection base in North Dakota rejected any notion that their fleet of aircraft had been misused, either to violate privacy rights or intimidate protesters. The aircraft, they said, were used to provide an eagle-eyed view of violent acts and arson. According to senior officials there, the Predator drone deployed to Minneapolis, like eight other unmanned aircraft owned by Air and Marine Operations, was neither armed nor equipped with facial recognition technology and flew at a height that made it impossible to identify individuals or license plates.

Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the aircraft could discourage people from protesting. “You see an aircraft, you have no idea currently what technologies that aircraft is carrying,” he said. “There is something militaristic and dominating about a militarized police aircraft hovering over you when you’re out there protesting police abuse.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not say whether any law enforcement agencies had requested footage of the demonstrations.