ACLU wants investigation into CHP’s use of aerial surveillance at protests

California Highway Patrol officers took to the air last year to survey racial justice protests all over the state after George Floyd’s death at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

Their images captured protesters marching through the streets and dancing in parks. CHP videos zoomed in on demonstrators making signs and a jogger running next to the Capitol in Sacramento.

Officers did not employ the same aerial surveillance tactics when right-leaning organizations protested Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the spring of 2020, according to public records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

Now, the civil rights nonprofit is calling for an independent investigation into how law enforcement uses surveillance tactics during demonstrations. The group also wants lawmakers to step in with stronger rules against recording protesters.

The ACLU said it filed a series of public records requests last year and this spring to determine why helicopters were being used during protests against the murder of Floyd, who was killed by asphyxiation when Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for several minutes.

The organization’s public records request asked for recordings, footage and aerial surveillance of protests starting from March 1, 2020.

The California Highway Patrol released 17 videos of racial justice protests and corresponding flight logs from May and June of 2020. The ACLU said it could not find any footage within the records related to protests against COVID-19 regulations.

During the spring of 2020, protesters showed up en masse to the Capitol in opposition to business and school closures amid surging case numbers. Thirty two people were arrested during a May 2020 protest against coronavirus restrictions at the Capitol.

The California Highway Patrol uses air operations for rescue efforts and to monitor “incidents, or occurrences,” according to its website.

But Matt Cagle, a staff attorney for ACLU, Northern California, said the discrepancy in what protests were being recorded last year further raises concerns about racial bias in law enforcement.