Drone regulation was at the forefront of Lobby Day 2014, the ACLU of Connecticut's annual legislative event, at the state Capitol on March 18.
Kade Crockford, director of the ACLU of Massachusetts Technology for Liberty Project, explained the challenges to privacy presented by government surveillance via cameras mounted on drones. David McGuire, staff attorney for the ACLU of Connecticut, briefed participants on the drone regulation bill pending before the legislature as well as three other legislative priorities. They were:
A bill requiring support the regulation of police officers in schools through mandatory memoranda of understanding, requiring schools to specify what offenses will be handled internally as disciplinary matters and what will be handled by the police as a criminal matter.
A bill requiring police to accept complaints from civilians, an initiative prompted by a 2012 report by the ACLU of Connecticut showing that many police departments in the state create barriers that discourage members of the public from filing complaints of police misconduct.
A bill to reform the sentencing of juveniles. The legislation would end the practice of sentencing people to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for crimes committed before the offender was 18 years old and would require parole hearings for juvenile offenders serving sentences of 10 years or longer.
Participants in the event, co-sponsored by the Council of American-Islamic Relations in Connecticut, were encouraged to lobby their legislators on those issues.
