Pa. Official Trying To Slow Down Drone Use By Government Without Warrant
By David Madden
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) - Drones: they're all the rage these days, not necessarily for the right reasons.
That's why a central Pennsylvania legislator is trying to put the brakes on their use by law enforcement without a warrant.
Actually, this is Senator Mike Folmer's second attempt at putting a two-year moratorium on using drones as a standard governmental tool.
"I just want to make sure that we have all our bases covered and that we're not going to be violating our Bill of Rights with any unintentional uses of this," he says.
There would be exceptions to the Lebanon County Republican's prohibition to account for emergency situations, like search and rescue and amber alerts.
Twenty-six states have put some form of drone privacy protection on the books. Most of the rest are at least thinking about it.
New Jersey has a proposed measure approved by the Assembly, but awaiting action in the State Senate.