For example, drones could assist police with pursuits of armed individuals or help find missing people. On the other hand, drones can peer into people’s windows in the upper floors of a high rise. Drones can carry many different devices – high resolution cameras, sensitive microphones, weapons, GPS trackers. Is this comparable to or different from these devices being in a police car?
- How should drones enhance public safety?
- How should drones be regulated
- Does using a drone constitute an “unreasonable” search in Fourth Amendment terms? (What role does the Fourth Amendment play?)
- If not, why not?
- And if yes, why and when?
In your position paper be cognizant of:
The potential need to reexamine certain parts of Fourth Amendment cases in the digital age. One such rule is the third-party doctrine established by Smith v. Maryland (99 S.Ct. 2577 (1979)), according to which an individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy in business record information voluntarily transmitted to a third party. In a modern era in which every aspect of our lives is “voluntarily” transmitted to and recorded by third parties—from our location information (through location-based Google Maps, cell phone towers, our cars, or our miscellaneous “check-ins”, among others), to our Cloud-stored e-mails and data, Fitbit-recorded exercise regimens, and lists of Facebook “friends”— should we continue to characterize such disclosures as “voluntary” and surrender all expectations of privacy in such information.
Word could should not include header or citations.