LOS ANGELES – This year, the Los Angeles Police Department deployed a drone for the first time and a report from Bard College’s Center for the Study of Drones says at least 600 other law enforcement agencies across the country use drones.

This raises questions by privacy advocates who worry that these cameras will be used to spy on the public.

So just how concerned should the public be about law enforcement using drones? Stan Goldman, Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, said while the technology is beneficial for law enforcement, drones are advancing quicker than laws are being put in place around their use.

“There’s no doubt that this could be a tremendous advantage and benefit to police law enforcement. You don’t have to use helicopters and risk crashes if you’re following chases. If you’re trying to find out if someone has got guns and they’re holed up somewhere, you can use a drone rather than risking people’s lives,” Goldman said. “What is [a reasonable expectation of privacy] in one generation might not be reasonable in another.”

Goldman also says those who are concerned about police spying have a legitimate concern, especially in communities that think of themselves as overly supervised or scrutinized by police.

“If you have reason to believe that you are being singled out and the police department is quite often not your friend, then you, of course, would be concerned with the ability of someone who is already watching you to watch you, really, all the time.”

Currently, most drones can only fly for about 40 minutes before they need to be recharged, but Goldman said this doesn’t mean they soon won’t be able to fly for much longer periods of time.

He said we must be very careful and very specific when writing rules around drones. For example, can law enforcement fly a drone behind a car and over a house for weeks on end because they may suspect, without probably cause, they are involved in criminal activity?

“The question is,” Goldman said, “is this for good or for evil? Who’s going to decide that?”

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