Police banned from using drones during lockdown

Police must stop using drones to monitor whether people are respecting lockdown rules, France's highest administrative court has ruled. 

 

The case came before the Council of State when civil rights groups appealed against a lower court's ruling that the practice was legal earlier this month.

 

The court said the way drones were currently being used to check whether people were maintaining social distancing and complying with a ban on gatherings of more than 10, "constitutes a serious and manifestly illegal infringement of the right to privacy…[and] laws on the protection of personal data" and ordered an immediate suspension of drone flights.

 

The authorities would need to issue a decree specifically authorising the practice, if French police wish to resume the use of drones. Alternatively, drones would have to have systems equipped to make it impossible to identify people filmed, an undertaking which would pose technical problems.

 

In Britain, during March, the Derbyshire police used drones to film walkers. That was considered controversial and likened to the type of operation likely to be performed in a "police state" by Lord Sumption, a former Supreme Court judge.

 

Former justice secretary, David Gauke, said the actions of the Derbyshire police were "badly misjudged".

 

 

 

PM Law 

Sheffield Solicitors