unmanned craft to stay aloft for ever-longer periods of time, for example through solar power, ground-based laser recharging, or the use of blimps.

solar power on a multirotor drone? funny man :) not going to happen - power draw for payload weight so far exceeds power supplied by solar panels even under ideal circumstances that this will only shorten, not lengthen, flight times. and that won’t ever change. Blimps? well if those were useful they’d be around by now; the technology to do that has been around for *years*. ground based laser recharging is fun ‘n all but it’s going to eliminate much of the cheapness benefit for years to come, besides probably requiring skilled maintenance (aside from having to maintain that constant ground presence, which will take a tonne of manpower).

I agree there can be privacy implications which have with police helicopters been limited to rare exceptions; however, this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. sorry, I generally like ACLU publications but this contains a wee bit to much in the way of unfounded fear mongering to take a word of it seriously anymore.