News Roundup

The town of Wendell, NC, recently purchased two drones and associated equipment for $20,000 to support the police department. Officials state the drones will help locate missing or endangered people, find criminal suspects, investigate traffic crashes, and support special operations. A sergeant noted the drones could be particularly helpful in locating children or adults with cognitive issues who go missing. The drones have heat-detecting cameras, live tracking, high-powered zoom, and distance-measuring tools. Proponents are optimistic that the technology will help officers by providing a perspective on chaotic scenes before officers go in blind. However, civil liberties groups have concerns that the technology may lead to intrusions on privacy. Law enforcement drone programs are proliferating throughout North Carolina in places such as Asheville, Burlington, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, and Winston-Salem. Read on for more criminal law news. Lawsuit for jail beating in Eastern NC settled. The Assembly has received newly released documents showing that a man who endured severe injuries after being beaten by fellow inmates at the Columbus County jail has reached a settlement with authorities for nearly one million dollars. The lawsuit alleged inadequate supervision under the leadership of the former sheriff and asserted that the government should be held liable for failing to prevent the assault. Advocates contend that too much time passed between supervisory rounds at the jail and that a pattern of negligence persisted over an extended period. Several deputies were disciplined in the aftermath of the incident, and a jail administrator states that improvements have been made [...]