Paul was no vote on the nomination, after the FBI wrote that it did not need a warrant to conduct unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations. Comey supports waterboarding, and surveillance programs similar to those now used during Obama’s presidency.
Paul had asked the FBI to clarify its interpretation of when an individual is assumed to have a reasonable expectation of privacy. “The FBI today responded to my questions on domestic use of surveillance drones by saying that they don’t necessarily need a warrant to deploy this technology,” Paul said in a statement. The FBI told Paul it has conducted UAV surveillance just 10 times since 2006 over US soil in support of missions related to “kidnappings, search and rescue operations, drug interdictions and fugitive operations.”
Americans’ loss of privacy rights, the militarization of local police departments, and the government’s use of new technologies to monitor us without our knowledge or consent are growing concerns for citizens across the ideological spectrum. Catherine Crump, Staff Attorney, for the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project praised Rand Paul as the foremost fighter in congress for our privacy rights.
Crump, who has fought to get law enforcement agencies to comply with their obligation to disclose documents to the public under the Freedom of Information Act,” praised Paul for “pushing for greater transparency” in her article, What the FBI Needs to Tell Americans About Its Use of Drones.
Crump notes that it is “good to know that the FBI has “no plans” to shoot bullets or bean bags at Americans using an unarmed robot flying in the sky. It would be even better if the FBI were to commit to notifying Congress and the American people if its plans change, to ensure a debate about whether this is an appropriate way to conduct policing of American citizens inside the United States.”
Currently the FBI is not conducting generalized surveillance using drones. According to Crump, it is limiting the use of the technology to specific investigations, which Crump says has the practical impact of limiting opportunities for abuse,” and “the Federal Aviation Administration must sign off on all drone flights.” This she writes should “help limit the use of this technology to when law enforcement agencies have a strong need for it.”