ST. LOUIS –Sam Dotson, a police chief in St. Louis, has alarmed citizens after announcing his desire to deploy drones over American cities.

The “unmanned aerial observation units” would be used to monitor citizens.

Drones are capable of being weaponized, and many suspect that the use of drones for “observation” is just an incremental step toward weaponizing them.

“It’s for your safety,” he said.

The drones, says Dotson, will be used “to help keep officers safe, to help keep the community safe.”

And, of course, Dotson invoked the threat of terrorism: “For monitoring public space, things like the upcoming Fair St. Louis, baseball games for terrorist, suspicious activity.”

He also appealed to the fact that drones would be cost effective, running the department between $80,000 and $300,000. 

Since police do not produce anything on their own, any drones acquired by the department would be paid for, under the threat of force, by the very citizens who oppose them.

Jeffrey Mittman of the ACLU commented on Dotson’s desire to use drones, saying:

“This is a case where our technology has gotten far ahead of our laws and our ability to protect us from unwarranted government intrusion.”

He then asked, “What are we going to do with the information that we gather? Who will have access to it? How will we protect against improper access? How will we protect against hacking of the data?”

In response to concerns about privacy, Dotson assured citizens that “These aren’t black ops. These aren’t things that crawl up the side of your building and look through your building or windows to see what you’re doing.”

If Dotson succeeds in getting a drone, it could be deployed in the sky within months.

Dotson has agreed to meet with the ACLU to discuss the matter in more detail.