Illinois law OKs police drone crowd control, bans facial recognition

A new law in Illinois gives police the authority to deploy drones in expanded scenarios – for notably monitoring crowds during large public events – but prevents law enforcement from using any facial recognition tech during aerial operations, apart from critical situations like potential terror plotting.

Illinois governor JB Pritzker signed bill  HB 3902 into law over the weekend, immediately broadening police drone authorization for a range of activities – including keeping watch of crowds during parades, marches, and other large public gatherings. Concerns over privacy and civil liberty rights, however, led to the statute’s ban on facial recognition use in those missions, or surveillance of political or protest marches protected by the First Amendment.

Moves to pass the new law began in reaction to last summer’s deadly July 4 mass shooting in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park – just one of growing, increasingly regular acts…