Police the sheriff's drones

In some respects, Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell's announcement that his department had purchased and was planning to use drones (or as he prefers to call them, "unmanned aircraft systems") was refreshing. It's certainly better than the 2012 Compton fiasco, in which the department secretly deployed a spy plane over that city and recorded surveillance video without notifying Compton's elected leaders -- or its residents. That kind of arrogant and unrestrained law enforcement intrusion, without vetting or oversight, is simply not tolerable. This time, at least, the sheriff went public first, displaying one of his new drones for the media and vowing to use them in limited situations only, such as hostage rescues and other emergencies in which it is difficult or dangerous for first-responders to go in person. The remote-controlled flying devices would be deployed incident by incident, he said, and would not be used for surveillance.