Customs chief says drones above protests were not used for surveillance

The acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, Mark Morgan, said that the drones flying above George Floyd protests were not used for surveillance, ABC News reported Wednesday. 

Morgan told ABC News that CBP flew drones over more than a dozen cities during the demonstrations over Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody. He said the drones were “providing assistance to state and local [officials] so they could make sure that their cities and their towns were protected.”

He said the claims that the drones were used for surveillance was “just a false narrative.”

“We were not providing any resources to surveil lawful peaceful protesters,” he said. “That’s not what we were doing.”

“We weren’t taking any information on law-abiding protesters, but we were absolutely there to ensure that the safety of folks there, as well as to enforce and make sure law and order remain,” he added.

Morgan pointed to an incident when a driver allegedly ran over law enforcement officers in Buffalo, N.Y. when the CBP “air operation” assisted in tracking down the vehicle and arresting the driver. The commissioner told the network that CBP’s assistance was “no different” than what they’ve done over the years. 

However, House Democrats sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security acting Secretary Chad Wolf last week expressing “grave concern” over the use of drones and unidentified officers to “surveil and intimidate” demonstrators in Minneapolis and other cities. 

Protests broke out across the country after video surfaced showing Floyd’s last moments in police detainment. The footage shows a former officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe and became unresponsive.

Morgan agreed with Attorney General William Barr and Wolf that it’s “just not true” that systemic racism exists within law enforcement. 

Officers “run towards danger, they don’t run away from it, and they’re not asking, when they’re running towards a danger to help somebody, they’re not asking what their race, creed, color or sexual orientation is; all they see is a human being in need of assistance, and they’re running to it,” he said.

He said he has “offered assistance and dialogue” to lawmakers who are working on police reform.

“We need to keep talking, we need to keep engaging, but we need to do so in an honest way and we need to recognize that not all cops are bad,” he told ABC News, acknowledging that “of course” some officers are bad.