Technology vs. Privacy

A recent Committee of 100 meeting addressed the topic of small, unmanned aircraft. You may refer to them as drones, but according to a one member on a panel of experts, moderated by Ben Wolfgang, from the Washington Times that term; “drone” is equivalent to a four letter word. Carl Schaefer, Director, Small Unmanned Aircraft System Products, Aurora Flight Sciences Corp., Manassas, VA prefers the acronym; “UAS”.

Most citizens express concerns regarding privacy when the FAA declares UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) are ready for prime time.  The Federal Government is not running rampant, without oversight regarding UAS, as there are many watchdogs ensuring that no one tramples the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

Delegate Ben Cline a sixth term representative to the Virginia House of Delegates is one of those watchdogs. Cline is concerned the government not overstep the boundaries set forth in the Constitution. Cline showed a healthy skepticism when an audience member asked, “Why should we trust the government?” Delegate Cline’s response was, “You shouldn’t!”

Additional concerns about privacy were addressed by Amie Stepanovich, Director, Domestic Surveillance Project, Electronic Privacy Information Center.( EPIC) Stepanovich spoke fluently about privacy concerns and addressed emerging issues such as facial recognition.

Dana Schrad, Executive Director, Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, stressed the impact UAS have in law enforcement. Schrad acknowledged there is a potential to overstep authority, but that potential would be reduced by training. Schrad cited numerous examples of the benefit outweighing the risk, as in the recent search for the alleged Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The entire panel was in agreement in the usefulness of UAS, not only as a surveillance tool, but to assist law enforcement to safely observe and track suspected criminals, in hostage situations and lost children, impaired or older adults.

Audience members participated in a lively question and answer period that included queries from Clancy McQuigg, a long-time member of the Occoquan-Lake Ridge Fire Department. McQuigg wanted to know how soon this technology could be utilized to help firefighters. Bryanna Altman  asked, “How small can these UAS become?”  Schaefer explained the continually evolving technology in a slide show depicting various types of UAS manufactured by Aurora;  Skate, Centaur and Orion, but the technology already exists to deploy UAS the size of insects.

The Committee of 100 meets monthly to discuss timely topics with a panel of experts in the field selected for that month. You can join the Committee of 100 as a member, and help continue the conversations relevant to Northern Virginia. C-100 offers a meal before the discussion and an opportunity to meet leaders in the community concerned with issues of the day. Additionally, C-100 offers a video replay posted on their website. Visit to view past discussions and return soon to view the video from the May 15 discussion.