Alameda County Sheriff promises no use of aerial drones for surveillance on common civilians

Associated Press reports:

A Northern California sheriff has vowed that his department won’t use an aerial drone to spy on ordinary people, but civil liberties groups say there still needs to be some guidelines to ensure privacy.

Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern said Tuesday that a drone his department is pursuing would be used for search and rescue missions, responding to wildfires and to capture fugitives, not for surveillance and intelligence gathering on civilians.