Tell The FAA: No Autonomous Drones In Our Communities

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    The Message

    Tell the FAA: Stop Approving Autonomous Drones

    We are horrified by the Federal Aviation Administration’s recent approvals of autonomous drones for broader use in our cities. 

    We don’t want unaccountable, autonomous surveillance drones policing our neighborhoods, filling our skies, or making potentially life-or-death decisions. 

    We urge you to stop approving autonomous drones in our neighborhoods and cities and start a process to review and overturn past approvals.

    The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is now giving autonomous surveillance drones permission to monitor our neighborhoods.

    We don’t want unaccountable, autonomous “crime-fighting” drones snooping on us, filling our skies, and making life-or-death decisions. 

    We need the FAA to listen to our communities and our grave concerns about autonomous flying drones policing our neighborhoods. 

    Tell the FAA: Hit the brakes on autonomous surveillance drones in U.S. towns and cities.

    This has been going on for months now, with multiple companies seeking legal exemptions on drone laws being granted those exemptions.¹

    Most recently, the FAA approved a request by Airobotics, an Israeli government-funded company,² to fly “autonomous” drones over U.S. homes and neighborhoods.³

    That means Airobotics just got a green light for fully autonomous drones, without a human operator.

    This isn’t a theoretical question — we’re already seeing cities like NYC under Mayor Eric Adams move towards increasing drone use to monitor and police our neighborhoods.

    A mere week after his visit to Israel in August, Adams said he wanted to see the NYPD follow Israel’s lead and further embrace the “endless” potential of drones.⁴

    For over a year, Adams has talked about integrating Israeli drone companies’ products with the city’s already troubling use of ShotSpotter surveillance tech.⁵

    And now the NYPD is teasing new plans to have drones respond to ShotSpotter alerts — all “inspired by technology Mayor Eric Adams saw during his tour of Israel’s National Police Academy.”⁶

    This is moving fast: NYC reportedly gave increased drone usage a trial run this past Labor Day, spying on New Yorkers’ celebrations — so we have to act fast.

    Tell the FAA: Stop Approving Spy Drones For U.S. Cities. 

    Sources:

    1. “Israel's Percepto gets U.S. FAA waiver for drone use, raises $67 million” Reuters, June 12, 2023.
    2. “Ondas Holdings' unit awarded $540,000 grant from Israel Innovation Authority (NASDAQ:ONDS),” Seeking Alpha, Aug. 30, 2023.
    3. “Airobotics Optimus 1-EX Drone Receives Historic U.S. FAA Type Certification; Using ParaZero SafeAir Safety System,” Yahoo/Finance, Sept. 8, 2023. 
    4. “Labor Day: New York police will use drones to monitor backyard parties this weekend,” AP News, Aug. 31, 2023.
    5. “Eric Adams mulls using drone army to fight NYC crime,” NY Post, March 26, 2022.
    6. NYPD chief says police will use more drones at crime scenes, Gothamist, Aug. 27, 2023.

     

     

     

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