Could the 2022 massacre during Highland Park’s July 4th parade have been prevented with a small change
to state law?
It’s never been publicly reported before, but several
local sources confirmed this week that Highland Park Police Chief Louis Jogmen
wanted to send a city-owned drone above the July 4 parade last year. That
camera-equipped drone could’ve spotted Robert Eugene Crimo III on a building
rooftop overlooking the parade before he fired 83 shots that killed seven
people and wounded 48 more. But the chief couldn’t launch that drone because of
state law.
Chief Jogmen’s police department has for years wanted to
launch the camera drone, which the city uses for search and rescue and other
emergencies, to fly over major public events. But state law prohibits law
enforcement agencies from using the drones for things like event surveillance.
In other words, state law allows police to use drones in
the aftermath of horrific and deadly mass shootings, but not to safeguard the
public before they happen.
“The Illinois Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act was
passed in 2014 in an effort to balance evolving technology with important
privacy concerns,” explained Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was at Highland
Park’s Independence Day parade last year. “Nearly 10 years later, it has been
unchanged and undeniably stands in the way of law enforcement doing their jobs
to keep our communities safe. We need to revisit and amend this law to prevent
future mass shootings like what we endured on July 4th in Highland Park.”
Highland Park and other municipalities are allowed to
deploy helicopters with high-tech video and tracking capabilities to surveil
events, but not drones. Helicopters are expensive to purchase, operate
and maintain and are very noisy (just ask anyone who lives in or near a high
crime area in Chicago how loud they can be). Drones are relatively inexpensive,
not difficult to fly and operate almost silently.
The quiet operation of the small drones is part of what
worries the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. People “could be
observed in a host of different places – like the upper floor of a large condo
building or one's backyard – without knowing that any surveillance was taking
place,” explained ACLU of Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka. “The same is not
true for a helicopter and requires law enforcement to – essentially – announce
their presence. This announcement could well deter criminal activity.”
Yohnka is right that the loud noise made by helicopters
might deter criminal activity (it’s also a very real and obnoxious intrusion on
the lives of countless thousands of south and west side residents at all hours
of the day and night). But, again, helicopters are expensive and difficult to
fly and maintain. A town of 30,000 people isn’t going to, and likely can’t
afford to shell out that kind of money. Even a place as wealthy as Highland
Park.
Highland Park city manager Ghida Neukirch pointed to a
bill introduced last year that would’ve allowed police to use the drones for
proactive law enforcement. “Had we had the opportunity to use it last July 4,
it would have provided our employees with an aerial view of the entire parade
grounds and rooftops and the entire area,” she said of the drone.
Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Lake Forest, went further,
suggesting that Highland Park’s drone could have prevented the mass killing.
Morrison was just a block away from the site of last
year’s parade shooting and she’s involved with the negotiations.
“We’ve been working with law enforcement to tailor a bill
that will serve public safety concerns,” Morrison told me last week, adding
that she and others have been “meeting on a daily basis” to find a fix for the
state’s drone laws.
The city of Chicago has its own drone rules, and is
reportedly skittish about any state law changes that could alter them.
“It’s an important issue to me,” Morrison said. She said
giving the police the ability to use drones in a more proactive sense, “could
have prevented the shooting in Highland Park.”
The General Assembly passed sweeping legislation to ban
assault weapons after the Highland Park shooting. But, so far, those are just
words on paper as court challenges to the law work their way through the
system.
People should have the right to attend public events
without nervously scanning unprotected rooftops, or worse. Nobody is talking
about giving the police unregulated and unfettered access to drones. Nobody is
talking about blocking Chicago’s drone program. It is time to come to an
agreement.