(Released 11\/27\/19)<\/em><\/p>\n The Justice Department announced today the publication of its updated Policy on the Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. In light of advancements in unmanned aircraft system (UAS) technology, and lessons learned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s limited use of UAS, the Policy enables the Department of Justice\u2019s law enforcement components to safely and responsibly employ UAS technology within a framework designed to provide accountability and protect privacy and civil liberties.<\/p>\n The Department of Justice seeks to leverage technological advances in pursuit of its mission to protect the public and enforce the laws.\u00a0 In recent years, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have rapidly evolved to become a paradigm-shifting technology with far-reaching societal impacts.\u00a0 Among many other things, UAS are now a very promising tool for enhancing public safety and security.\u00a0 The Department\u2019s own use of UAS, to date, demonstrates their utility and potential.\u00a0 Properly deployed, UAS can reduce risks to law enforcement officers and the public, while minimizing costs and increasing efficiency when compared to manned aircraft and other alternative tools.\u00a0 UAS augment the ability of federal law enforcement officers to conduct a wide range of critical missions, including search and rescue, disaster relief, tactical-entry support, and fixed-site security.<\/p>\n In order to harness these benefits while guarding against associated risks, it is the policy of the Department to utilize UAS in an appropriate and responsible manner that advances the Department\u2019s mission, promotes public safety, and protects privacy and civil liberties.\u00a0 This\u00a0Department of Justice Policy on the Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems<\/i>\u00a0(the \u201cPolicy\u201d) aims to facilitate the Department\u2019s use of UAS within a framework designed to provide appropriate oversight, accountability, and transparency.<\/p>\n Applicability.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>This Policy provides foundational standards governing the use of UAS by Department components and supersedes the 2015\u00a0Department of Justice Policy Guidance \u2013 Domestic Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)<\/i>.\u00a0 The Deputy Attorney General may, at any time, modify or supplement this Policy, including by providing additional requirements or guidance for operational deployment, training, reporting, procurement, coordination mechanisms, and other matters.<\/p>\n Compliance with Law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Consistent with the Department\u2019s commitment to the rule of law and the protection of privacy and civil liberties, the Department\u2019s use of UAS will comply with all applicable provisions of the Constitution, including the Fourth Amendment\u2019s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and other laws and regulations, including regulations issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).\u00a0 Additionally, Department personnel may never use UAS to engage in discrimination that runs counter to the Department\u2019s anti-discrimination policies or other anti-discrimination laws.<\/p>\n Scope of Use.<\/b>\u00a0 The Department will only use UAS in connection with properly authorized investigations and activities.\u00a0 The scope of authorized investigations and activities is defined by applicable statutory authorities, rules and regulations, Attorney General Guidelines, and other policies and guidance.<\/p>\n Approvals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Department components must promote meaningful oversight by ensuring that all UAS operations are approved at an appropriate level.\u00a0 The appropriate approval levels should be tailored to the particular operational and tactical needs of the component\u2019s UAS missions.\u00a0 Prior to implementation, a component\u2019s approval levels must be approved by the Deputy Attorney General to ensure that UAS are deployed responsibly.\u00a0 Any subsequent change in approval levels must be approved in the same manner.<\/p>\n Access to Airspace<\/b>.<\/b>\u00a0 In addition to basic compliance with FAA regulations, Department components will work with the FAA to develop and implement plans and procedures to provide any necessary specialized air traffic and airspace management support, including expedited FAA operational waivers and authorization, deconfliction, tailored operational security measures, and harmonization with UAS threat mitigation.<\/p>\n Training.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>The Deputy Attorney General will approve a minimum UAS training standard applicable to all components.\u00a0 That standard will capture the core competencies for personnel engaged in UAS operations across the Department.<\/p>\n Each component must also develop and implement additional training and certification requirements tailored to that component\u2019s missions.\u00a0 These additional requirements must be approved by the Deputy Attorney General.\u00a0 Additionally, Department personnel using UAS or approving the use of UAS must receive training on the relevant legal and policy requirements, including this Policy.\u00a0 Only personnel certified by their component as having completed these requirements may operate UAS.[1]<\/u><\/p>\n Tracking and Reporting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>The Deputy Attorney General will issue requirements for components to track and report relevant information pertaining to UAS operations.\u00a0 These requirements will apply to all uses of UAS by the Department, including where the Department provides UAS support to State, Local, Territorial, Tribal, or other Federal agencies (collectively, \u201cother agencies\u201d) or where the Department requests and receives UAS support from other agencies.[2]<\/u><\/p>\n At a minimum, each component will provide to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and the Office of Legal Policy an annual report summarizing that component\u2019s UAS operations during the previous fiscal year.\u00a0 This annual report will include a brief description of each type or category of mission flown; the number of times the component provided assistance to other agencies, as well as the purpose(s) for that assistance; and the privacy review conducted for the component\u2019s UAS operations, as discussed further below.\u00a0 Without revealing law enforcement, national security, or other information protected from disclosure, each of the components\u2019 annual reports will be consolidated into a publicly releasable summary of Department-wide UAS operations.\u00a0 This publicly releasable summary will promote transparency, ensuring the public is informed about the Department\u2019s UAS operations in a manner consistent with the needs of law enforcement and national security.<\/p>\n Stakeholder Engagement.<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0To the extent appropriate and helpful, Department components may engage external stakeholders concerning the Department\u2019s use of UAS, consistent with the protection of law enforcement, national security, and other information protected from disclosure.\u00a0 For purposes of this Policy, \u201cexternal stakeholders\u201d refers primarily to State, Local, Territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies, but could include other external stakeholders, as appropriate.\u00a0 For example, a component using UAS to monitor the perimeter of a secure facility in an urban environment may find it helpful to engage with local law enforcement authorities and other community stakeholders.<\/p>\n Protecting Privacy and Civil Liberties.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>In determining whether and how to utilize cameras and other sensors associated with UAS, Department and component personnel (described in the paragraph below) will assess the potential intrusiveness and impact on privacy and civil liberties, which will be balanced against the relevant governmental interests.\u00a0 Consistent with applicable laws and requirements, including the E-Government Act of 2002, and to ensure the protection of privacy and civil liberties, the Department will only collect information from UAS sensors, and will only use, retain, or disseminate information obtained from such UAS sensors, for a properly authorized purpose.<\/p>\n Senior Component Officials for Privacy will be responsible for conducting, in a manner approved by the Department\u2019s Chief Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer, an assessment of the component\u2019s overall use of UAS and associated sensors prior to deployment of new UAS technology.\u00a0 Additionally, Senior Component Officials for Privacy must ensure that their component completes all appropriate privacy documentation and conducts annual privacy reviews of the component\u2019s use of UAS to ensure compliance with existing laws, regulations, and policies relating to privacy and civil liberties and, where appropriate, make recommendations to the Deputy Attorney General and the Office of Legal Policy consistent with applicable privacy and civil liberty protections.\u00a0 Components will follow existing procedures to review, investigate, and address privacy and civil liberties complaints.<\/p>\n Data Retention.\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0The Department will not retain information collected using UAS that may contain personally identifiable information for more than 180 days, unless the retention of information is determined to be necessary for an authorized purpose or is maintained in a Privacy Act system of records.\u00a0 Data collected by UAS that is retained must be maintained and safeguarded in accordance with applicable Federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, standards, and other guidance.\u00a0 These authorities ensure that Department personnel with access to such data follow practices that are consistent with the protection of privacy and civil liberties.\u00a0 Moreover, components must comply with the Federal Records Act and ensure that appropriate records retention schedules are in place for records generated through use of UAS. \u00a0Use of all Department information systems, which may include UAS component parts, may be monitored, recorded, and subjected to audit according to Department policy.<\/p>\n Procurement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>UAS component parts may constitute Information Technology (IT) capable of processing, storing, or transmitting information.\u00a0 The procurement of IT must comply with applicable laws, policies, and regulations, including those administered by the Office of the Chief Information Officer.\u00a0 The Department ensures appropriate security and privacy protections for data and IT through the risk-based Department Cybersecurity Program and effective IT management.\u00a0 This includes oversight of acquisition and cybersecurity risks and supply chain risk management.\u00a0 Moreover, before authorizing State, Local, Territorial, or Tribal agencies to use Federal grant funding to purchase or use UAS, components must ensure that the grant recipient has in place policies and procedures designed to safeguard privacy and civil liberties and mitigate cybersecurity risks.<\/p>\n Implementing Policies.<\/b>\u00a0 Components seeking to use UAS will implement the standards and requirements of this Policy in the context of their individual operating environments by issuing, with notice to the Deputy Attorney General and the Office of Legal Policy, component-specific UAS policies that are consistent with this Policy and all applicable law.\u00a0 At a minimum, a component-specific UAS policy will address component requirements for training and certification, tracking and reporting of UAS missions, approvals of UAS operations, cooperation with the FAA on access to airspace and related operational matters, and the protection of privacy and civil liberties.<\/p>\n Internal Coordination.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>The Office of Legal Policy chairs the Department-wide UAS Working Group.[3]<\/u>\u00a0 Under the direction of the Deputy Attorney General, the UAS Working Group provides a forum to coordinate and discuss matters relating to the use of UAS.\u00a0 In furtherance of this Policy, and in consultation with the UAS Working Group to the extent appropriate, the Office of Legal Policy will direct and coordinate the following functions:<\/p>\n Internal Policy Only.<\/b>\u00a0 This Policy applies to Department components and employees and is intended only to improve internal management of the Department of Justice.\u00a0 It is not intended to, does not, and may not be relied upon to create any rights, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by any party in any matter civil or criminal.<\/p>\n [1]<\/u>\u00a0Until the Deputy Attorney General approves a Department-wide minimum training standard and, as discussed below, tracking and reporting requirements, components may operate UAS in compliance with existing component-specific policies relating to training, tracking, and reporting.\u00a0 Once Department-wide requirements have been issued for training, tracking, and reporting, previously issued component-specific policies may remain in place to the extent that they are consistent with the Department-wide requirements or are otherwise modified to ensure compliance with the Department-wide requirements within a reasonable time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [2]<\/u>\u00a0See supra\u00a0<\/i>note 1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [3]<\/u>\u00a0The UAS Working Group includes representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the United States Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Bureau of Prisons, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office of Legal Policy, the National Security Division, the Criminal Division, the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, the Office of Justice Programs, the Office of Community Oriented Policing, the Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties, the Office of the Chief Information Officer, and the Office of Legislative Affairs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Background (Released 11\/27\/19) The Justice Department announced today the publication of its updated Policy on the Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. In light of advancements in unmanned aircraft system (UAS) technology, and lessons learned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s limited use of UAS, the Policy enables the Department of Justice\u2019s law enforcement components to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,4],"tags":[247,1380,1381],"class_list":{"0":"post-8620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fbi-files-domestic-foreign-intelligence","8":"category-intelligence","9":"tag-drones","10":"tag-uas","11":"tag-unmanned-aerial-system"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/6-15-2020-5-27-25-AM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Department of Justice Policy on the Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), 9-95.100<\/h3>\n
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