Letter to the City of Daytona Beach Police Department: Unlawful Use of Unmanned Drones

LETTER SUMMARY

NCLA submits the following letter urging the City of Daytona Beach Police Department to immediately cease its use of unmanned drones to monitor the temperatures of its residents for signs of fever. This practice violates clear constitutional limits and is an affront to the privacy of innocent members of the community.

Of course, the Police Department has also stated its intention to continue conducting this mass surveillance indiscriminately, without even the barest assertion of criminal wrongdoing. Indeed, it has suggested that it will conduct these invasive searches and gather massive amounts of private information on every law-abiding citizen in the City, by, for example, “zoom[ing] in on a crowd of people” to pick out someone with a fever. Balona, supra. This is an affront to the Fourth Amendment’s protection and a grave constitutional violation.

The Police Department should seriously reconsider its plainly unconstitutional conduct and cease these constitutional violations immediately. Otherwise, this conduct could well invite a lawsuit from Daytona Beach’s citizens. While NCLA’s attorneys are not members of the Florida Bar, they have appeared as counsel, pro hac vice, in lawsuits against other governmental entities in Florida. NCLA is always prepared to file appropriate legal action to protect the rights of Americans.

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