Drones: North Dakota Police Can Now Arm Drones With Non-Lethal Weapons
Police in North Dakota will now have one extra tool at their disposal, drones with nonlethal weapons like rubber bullets or Tasers.
Thanks to the passage of Bill 1328, police will be able to equip these drones with weapons incapable of killing, The Verge reports. The original bill, sponsored by Rep. Rick Becker, R-Bismarck, was intended to limit police's surveillance powers and banned weapons on law enforcement drones.
A policy lobby group was permitted to amend the bill and added the language to only ban deadly weapons on the drones.
Becker wanted all weapons to be banned from these drones but said he will have to live with the bill as it is written.
"This is one I'm not in full agreement with. I wish it was any weapon," he said at a hearing in March. "In my opinion there should be a nice, red line: Drones should not be weaponized. Period."
Even though these nonlethal weapons are said to be incapable of killing, they still have a history of killing. In 2015, at least 39 people were killed by police Tasers. Other nonlethal weapons like bean bags, rubber bullets and flying tear gas cans have maimed and killed in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, The Daily Beast reports.
Becker expressed concern about police firing at suspects from remote locations. He said not being on the scene with the suspect leads to "depersonalization."
The Grand Forks Police Department has been loaned two drones from a California drone manufacturer. These drones are equipped with cameras, but the sheriff doesn't think they should be required to obtain a warrant to use these drones to spy on suspects.
"It was a bad bill to start with," Sheriff Bob Rost told The Daily Beast. "We just thought the whole thing was ridiculous."
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