• Listen to this segment with Hamid Khan

• Listen to the entire program with Sonali Kolhatkar

Four yeas ago the Seattle police department spent more than $80,000 to surreptitiously purchase 2 unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones, from the federal government. Their intention was to use the drones to gather intelligence data on residents. Drones are currently primarily used by the US in the battlefield, often to drop bombs.

Public outcry over the drones led the Seattle Mayor to end the program in 2013, but rather than return the drones, Seattle donated them – to the city of Los Angeles. The LAPD, which has had the drones since May, held off on using them until regulations can be drafted by the City Council. While the LAPD has agreed to hold public hearings on their use and has stated that they would only use them for SWAT calls in hostage situations, critics are extremely concerned about privacy issues.

But it’s not just in LA that drones are being deployed on American citizens and residents. The Electronic Frontier Foundation earlier this year reported that US the Customs and Border Protection Agency has flown drones for surveillance purposes on behalf of law enforcement agencies nationwide, hundreds of times, and that the frequency of use is increasing.

Congress passed a law two years ago that will allow commercial drone flights to begin next year. But a Washington Post investigation earlier this year of drones in the military documented hundreds of accidents where drones malfunctioned and literally fell from the sky. As domestic drone use ramps up in the US, accidents also become a grave concern.

GUEST: Hamid Khan, an organizer with the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition

There will be a community town hall meeting on drone use organized by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition on Saturday, November 8th from 3-5pm at CARECEN: 2845 W 7th St, Los Angeles. You can also visit stoplapdspying.org for more information.