May 6, 2021
Evanston Police Departmentâs aerial fleet is unassuming: a single four-rotor drone, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
While small, the drone makes up the entirety of an Unmanned Aerial System program, jointly operated by Evanstonâs police and fire departments. A year after purchase, the drone has not yet been employed in the field. As the departments work to get the program airborne, however, questions of legality remain around some of the droneâs intended uses.
The droneâs primary benefit is its ability to perform tasks such as water rescue and live fire analysis faster and more safely than a team of officers, according to police sergeant Scott Sophier. Sophier coordinates the UAS program, in addition to supervising EPDâs Community Policing Unit, a team of officers tasked with fostering trust between police and the community.
Amid a national debate over voting by mail and a 2020 general election in Kansas that, by all accounts, went off without a hitch, slight changes to the state s election laws are still on the table.
Most notably, legislators are weighing a proposal to ban residents from dropping off an advance ballot on behalf of a neighbor or friend, with arguments that such a move is necessary to crack down on potential ballot harvesting.
That term refers to someone collecting a mass of ballots on behalf of others and then submitting them. It gained widespread prominence as part of President Donald Trump s unverified claims of fraud in mail voting during the 2020 election.
Lawyers and legislators are split on whether to do away with assurances that Kansans will have their trial handled in an efficient manner, with concerns that provision will make it more difficult for the state s court system to recover from the blow caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kansas is one of at least a dozen states that have provisions in their state law enshrining a defendant s right to a speedy trial. Under current law, a case must be brought to trial within 150 days, or 180 days if someone is out on bail. Otherwise, those cases must be dismissed and can t be brought again.