"No Drones" at Berkeley City Council

"No Drones" was on the Feb 24th agenda of the Berkeley City Council meeting. The city's Peace and Justice Commission has for over 2 years been proposing an ordinance to "Proclaim Berkeley a No Drone Zone."

The drone moratorium came up at around 9:30 p.m. and 15 or 20 people spoke during public comments, 1 or 2 spoke in favor of drones, the rest of the speakers opposed drones, citing the issues of spying and privacy. A speaker from VETERANS FOR PEACE pointed out that drones are a military weapon to be used by militarized police, and reminded them of what Berkeley residents had experienced from militarized police in December 2014.

The council members discussed the proposed moratorium; some wanted to add a list of exceptions as is allowed for helicopters. Some defended drones as being part of modern technology, a wave of the future. (Actually, that same argument could be made in support of nuclear bombs, GMOs and carcinogenic chemicals.) Fortunately, several council members supported the drone moratorium.

It concluded with the council approving a one-year moratorium; the police do not get to use drones, but the fire department does get to use drones for search and rescue, fire fighting, etc. So it’s not an airtight ordinance, but better than nothing.