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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

In order to get law enforcement lobby support for a law requiring warrants to deploy drones for surveillance, North Dakota legislators decided to allow law enforcement to use "less-than-lethal" weaponized drones [arstechnica.com]:

Legal experts are very concerned that a new North Dakota law [documentcloud.org] which allows law enforcement drones to be armed with so-called less-than-lethal weapons—including stun guns and beanbag rounds—could be highly problematic. The law, however, explicitly forbids lethal weapons [documentcloud.org]. Previous drafts of the bill specifically included prohibitions on non-lethal weapons [documentcloud.org], language that was later removed.

Among other reasons, such weapons have been shown that they can, in fact, kill people. According to research by The Guardian [theguardian.com], 39 Americans have died this year alone at the hands of police wielding a Taser. Meanwhile, the Associated Press [concordmonitor.com] reported Wednesday that more than 20 North American cities are pursuing large silicone-based projectiles as yet another alternative weapon.

North Dakota is believed [thedailybeast.com] to be the first state in the union to allow such weapons aboard state and local police drones.

[...] The law, known as House Bill 1328, which took effect earlier this month, imposes a significant pro-privacy victory: requiring that police and sheriff's deputies get a warrant when deploying a drone for surveillance. [...] However, in order to get the measure through the state's legislative body, the bill's author told Ars that he had to do a little horse trading with the state law enforcement lobby, the North Dakota Peace Officers' Association [ndpoa.org], which had strongly lobbied against it.

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