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Big Brother will be watching as America's largest police department plans to spy on its citizens over Labor Day weekend using drones to monitor backyard parties.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) plans to pilot the drones in response to complaints about large gatherings, including private events, over Labor Day weekend, officials announced.

“If a caller states there’s a large crowd, a large party in a backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party,” Assistant NYPD Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said.

Critics have warned that the use of drones in this manner could constitute a civil liberties violation.

Nearly 1,400 police departments are currently using drones across the county, according to a report from the American Civil Liberty Union. The report predicted the use of drones among police departments was “poised to explode.”

The Legal Aid Society previously criticized the NYPD in Oct. 2021 for its use of drones manufactured by Da Jiang Innovations (DJI), a Chinese company that the United States Department of Defense (DOD) labeled as a potential threat to national security, according to a 2017 report.

There is obviously a potential risk for the misuse of data and falling into the wrong hands when relying on China for this technology. Drones have the capacity to collect data surveilling American citizens. So what evidence do we have that China is not already utilizing that information?

“SIP Los Angeles assesses with moderate confidence that Chinese-based company DJI Science and Technology is providing U.S. critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government. SIP Los Angeles further assesses with high confidence the company is selectively targeting government and privately owned entities within these sectors to expand its ability to collect and exploit sensitive U.S. data,” according to the 2017 report.

Mass surveillance should not only be condemned but prohibited. And only used for emergency situations, if even that.

Drones used to be seen as weapons for fighting in war zones. But then local agencies started using them to enforce lockdowns. And now they are being used to spy on American citizens.

The use of drones by government officials raises serious privacy concerns and it seems New York is on track to fly right into a dystopian nightmare.

Is this the beginning of a digital form of authoritarianism? Or has that already begun?