(AP Photo/U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

Earlier this month, Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer said that while he’s intrigued by the new technology, his department isn’t planning on obtaining any unmanned aerial drones to patrol the skies over Northern Virginia.

But Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is far more enthusiastic about the prospect, he told WTOP Tuesday morning. And for McDonnell, applying drone technology to law enforcement in Virginia would not be much of a departure from its frequent use in war zones like Afghanistan:

Increased safety and reduced manpower are among the reasons the U.S. military and intelligence community use drones on the battlefield, which is why it should be considered in Virginia, he says.

“It’s great,” he said while speaking on WTOP’s “Ask the Governor” program. “If you’re keeping police officers safe, making it more productive and saving money…it’s absolutely the right thing to do.”

That’s right: If an unmanned drone can blow up a terrorist (or family of Afghan civilians), it can surely be repurposed to monitor traffic situations on the ground in idyllic Virginia suburbs. Fairfax County, along with several other counties in the Washington area, was recently listed by the Federal Aviation Administration as one of many jurisdictions and agencies approved to use unmanned aerial vehicles in law enforcement.

But the use of drones, especially for domestic purposes, gives civil-liberties watchdogs pause. “We must ensure that as drones take flight in domestic airspace, they don’t take off without privacy protections for those along their flight path,” Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) wrote in an April 19 letter to the FAA, according to WTOP.

McDonnell said today, rather cryptically, that “it will prove important to ensure the state maintains Americans’ civil liberties, such as privacy” should Virginia deploy its own drone fleet.