EYES IN THE SKY

Homeland Security Deployed Drones, Copters, and Planes to Film Floyd Protests: NYT

The use of unmanned aircraft to watch protesters in Minneapolis has sparked multiple federal inquiries, but other surveillance has not drawn scrutiny.

The Department of Homeland Security gathered far more surveillance footage of the George Floyd protests than previously known, according to data from Customs and Border Protection compiled by The New York Times. DHS deployed drones, helicopters, and airplanes to record more than 270 hours of video of the demonstrations that spread across the country in the wake of the alleged murder of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer. Congress has opened an inquiry into the use of unmanned aircraft to record protesters in Minneapolis, as has the Air Force’s Inspector General, but the use of surveillance aircraft at least 15 more cities has not been subject to lawmakers’ scrutiny. DHS has also reportedly uploaded the footage into a collective surveillance database known as “Big Pipe” that is accessible to other federal law enforcement agencies and local police departments.