This month’s capture of a man suspected of planning a shooting attack in Bend was eye-opening. It’s always unsettling to know that someone is planning such an act. In this case, what was also noteworthy was how police were able to use drones to identify the man and then go in an make an arrest — reducing the need to put officers in harm’s way.
When we talked to the Bend Police Department about it, they highlighted how helpful drones can be in their work. Bend PD has been using them longer than many other law enforcement agencies in the state, having used them since 2016. In our story, they pointed out how the use of drones is currently restricted to certain times, such as in search and rescue, crime scene reconstruction and with a warrant.
Police here want to see that use expanded. A proposed Oregon state law currently in the House Rules committee seeks to do just that. SB 238 would offer expanded use during arrest warrants and in calls for service, as well as reducing the paperwork needed to use them during search and rescue. Under the proposed changes, law enforcement would not be able to use them during a lawful assembly — or in other words, during legal demonstrations like the ones that have been cropping up over the past several weeks.
While the changes to the law seem reasonable, a bit of caution is always prudent here — especially as it pertains to things like demonstrations. We can see the benefits of using drones in law enforcement in the case of the Bend man planning an attack. But at this time in history, it’s not the legal use of something like drones that scares us — it’s the potential for abuse that might fall outside the law. It’s not difficult at this moment to imagine tools like this used — perhaps even illegally — against a peaceful population. Right now, we are seeing, in states like California, the National Guard being weaponized at the federal level. In dicey legal territory, things that we authorize in good faith can also be used in bad faith later on. It’s the same reason we hesitated when Bend PD invited locals to voluntarily hand over their security camera footage on an ongoing basis.
The bill going through the legislature may or may not pass, and in any case, it appears to protect people’s Fourth Amendment rights to illegal search and seizure, among other protections. That seems fair and under the rule of law.
But forgive us for being a little skeptical about the incremental handing-over of the last shreds of our privacy, when we currently, as Americans, don’t have Federal leadership that respects the rule of law.
This article appears in Source Weekly June 19, 2025.
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Blocking a road is not peaceful protest. Blocking a sidewalk is not peaceful protest. Graffiti is not peaceful protest. Throwing rocks or bottles is not peaceful protest. Chaining yourself to a physical object that is not yours is not peaceful protest. Screaming obscenities and epithets is not peaceful protest. Vandalism is not peaceful protest. Disrupting a legitimate business is not peaceful protest. Failure to obey an officer of the law is not peaceful protest.
Bring on the drones!
Peaceful: not involving war or violence, Violence: behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. Blocking roads and sidewalks, chaining yourself to an object and disrupting business ARE peaceful protests. Throwing rocks and bottles and vandalism are NOT peaceful. LAWFUL police orders should be obeyed. Words are constitutionally protected speech.