David Limbrick: Police drones should not be accepted as ‘normal’
Drones and helicopters are visible reminders of how our rights have been eroded. And when they fly overhead this weekend, you might pause for a moment to ask if this is how we really want to live, writes David Limbrick.
Opinion
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As police helicopters and drones prepare for lift-off over Melbourne this weekend, I fear this could become accepted as “COVID normal”, and before we know it, just as plain normal.
It shouldn’t be. Is this really how we want to live?
Helicopters and drones are a great tool for police when it comes to some tasks involving search and rescue.
Yet there has been no community discussion about whether they should be used for surveillance, let alone for recording your beach activities or what’s cooking on your barbecue on Grand Final Day.
Police drones are unmarked. How are we supposed to know if they are being operated by a neighbourhood pervert, or the police? And what happens to the footage that is downloaded to the police server?
This is not a hypothetical concern. Just a few years ago, there were more than 500 privacy breaches by the police in a calendar year. And those are just the ones we know about.
The Victorian Charter of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to keep their lives private, and to not have their family, home or personal information interfered with.
While helicopters fly overhead this weekend, you might pause for a moment to wonder why we have this human right when nobody is enforcing it.
And you might also be surprised to learn that more than 50 public servants at Victoria’s Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission are supposed to be doing just this.
Drones and helicopters are visible reminders of how our rights have been eroded, but many others — such as protections against warrantless search and seizure — have also been discarded, with barely a whimper from the commission.
And I would tell you how human rights assessments are made, but it would be easier to tell you about the recipe for KFC.
All these deliberations are made in secret and locked away in the cupboard somewhere. It would be nice if they showed the same concern for the privacy of Victorians. Victorians are not criminals in waiting and being spied on by helicopters and drones is no way to live.
Human rights are just as important during a pandemic as other times, and if “COVID normal” means Victorians have virtually none, then it’s just not good enough.
David Limbrick is the Liberal Democrats MP for Victoria’s South East Metropolitan region