FBI Surveillance flights over Baltimore and Ferguson as residents of those cities engaged in civil disobedience against racially-motivated police violence were lawful and useful, bureau Director James Comey claimed Thursday.
Comey said that the missions were flown at the behest of local law enforcement in each case, as demonstrations raged against the killings of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray by city cops.
“If there is tremendous turbulence in a community, it’s useful to everybody—civilians and law enforcement—to have a view of what’s going on,” Comey said. “Where are the fires in this community? Where are people gathering? Where do people need help?” he went on.
“And sometimes the best view of that is above rather than try and look from a car on the street.”
Brown was an unarmed teenager killed in August 2014 by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Gray was 25-years-old when he suffered fatal injuries in Baltimore Police custody, in April.
Comey also claimed the flights are authorized at “a fairly high level at the FBI.”
He additionally drew a contrast between surveillance flights conducted on behalf of local law enforcement and missions carried out exclusively by the FBI to tail specific individuals. The former, he said, can take on a more generalized nature—as seen in Baltimore and Ferguson.
“Since the Wright brothers, we have used airplanes to follow people,” Comey stated.
When pressed by Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) about whether he believes the bureau should obtain warrants before conducting the flights for local police departments, Comey replied in the negative.
“The law is pretty clear that you don’t need a warrant for that type of observations,” he stated.
The Washington Post, relying on information from individuals who tracked the airplanes’ movements over the skies of Baltimore, published a report in May, prompting the ACLU to file Freedom of Information Act requests with the FBI for more information on their aerial surveillance activities.
The bureau acknowledged in that report that it provided airplanes to the Baltimore Police Department in order to provide “aerial imagery of possible criminal activity.”
During the hearing, Comey also briefly and tangentially addressed one issue that caused the unrest in Baltimore and Ferguson—the lack of accountability surrounding police shootings.
“I think it’s embarrassing for those of us in government who care deeply about these issues—especially the use of force by law enforcement—that we can’t have an informed discussion because we don’t have data,” Comey said in response to questioning from the committee’s ranking member, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.)
“I cannot tell you haw many people were shot by police in the United States last month, last year, or anything about the demographics and that’s a very bad place to be,” he added, referencing the lack of data sharing between the department and local police agencies
Comey claimed he was “optimistic” that the department is working to address the problem, and referenced a conference in Chicago next week where he will bring the matter up with police chiefs and sheriffs around the country.
He said, however, that “it’s going to take a few years.”
