CLEVELAND — Got a warrant for that drone?
It’s a question police agencies in Ohio may have to answer.
State lawmakers want to require search warrants for drone surveillance.
It’s something the city of Cleveland may have to consider as it begins to flesh out a policy for its drone program.
Many Northeast Ohio police agencies have drone programs. Last month, Cleveland got its drone order delivered and is now reviewing best practices.
“The drones would be used for probably special events, locating missing individuals, and fleeing suspects,” Police Union President Andy Gasiewski said.
Last month, News 5 Investigators showed how Parma Police use the technology.
Parma police demonstrated its drone as Cleveland waited for theirs.
We asked Parma Sgt. Rick Morgan if he thought the drone was better than having a helicopter.
“Yes. Cause it gets there quicker and it sees the same thing,” Sgt. Morgan said.
Morgan said drones are essential to finding missing adults, children, and even carjackers.
Parma searched Cleveland in March for suspected carjackers on the east side.
“And the drone went up found em and it was game over,” Sgt. Morgan said.
State Representative Bernie Willis says he wants to make sure they’re preparing for the future.
“Those things started to roll out ahead of a lot of other ground work that needed to be done,” Rep. Willis said.
Rep. Willis wants to require police to get search warrants for drone surveillance, like watching a known drug house.
“We want it to happen without having a lot of the public trust issues that we’ve been working on for probably a decade and a half now to ensure we can integrate these systems to do really great things,” Rep. Willis said.
House Bill 149 gives exceptions for pressing matters, Rep. Will says that could save lives.
“We left the boundaries open so if they say we had to use it for this just like any other system right they might have to come back and answer that question of why did you use it and was it appropriate to do it,” Rep. Willis said.
Under the bill, a warrant also wouldn’t be needed for weather catastrophes, recording evidence at crime scenes, and car crashes.
Police Union President Andy Gasiewski says most things a drone would catch are in plain view.
“I would recommend it to be definitely to plain view to be open just like it has been for helicopters,” Gasiewski said.
“The goal really is to try to make sure that we’re not overstepping on one side to get through on the other side,” Rep.Willis said
National police and security expert Tim Dimoff says it will only make police officers’ jobs harder.
“I think it hinders good law enforcement procedure,” Dimoff said.
Dimoff says it takes away from good objective evidence.
“If you want to have a drone enter a building it already falls under the guise of you need a search warrant,” Dimoff said.
Rep. Willis says the bill could make it to the House floor for a vote on June 26.
