The advancements of unmanned aerial vehicle technology have made it possible for the police to deploy automated drones assisted by officers. These UAVs could be used to provide police officers with real-time surveillance to make their jobs safer and more efficient in solving crimes and documentation tasks, according to the Police Chief Magazine.
Currently, the US has over 1.1 million UAVs and experts estimate that this number could blow up to 3.5 million by 2021. Not only that, but the magazine also reported that various countries are already using the same drone technology in their police operations as well.
These drones are being used for search and rescue operations, traffic collision construction, investigations of shooter incidents, analyzing crime analysis, as well as surveillance of the area, and crowd monitoring.
Automated Drones in Action
In a recent report by The New York Times, they featured how the automated drones were helpful in one of the police operations. The officers of Chula Vista in California have responded to a 911 call about a man sleeping in a stolen car with visible drug paraphernalia. The use of drones in that case has helped them chase down the man.
According to the report, the man left the car carrying a gun and a bag of heroin and sprinted across the street, and ducked behind the wall. The police officers behind him were having trouble chasing him, but the drone following the man has caught him throwing the bag of heroin and the gun to the dumpster as he slipped through the back door of a strip mall, then exited the front door before running down the sidewalk.
The officer watching the live footage from the headquarters immediately reported to the police on the scene, who finally caught the man and took him into custody. They, later on, retrieved the gun and the bag of heroin from the dumpster and the drone went back on its own to the roof.
Privacy Concerns
Despite the good things about the use of automated drones, it also carries some risks, especially for people's privacy. According to Gizmodo's report, privacy advocates have expressed their concerns about this novel technology that the police force is using.
"Communities should ask hard questions about these programs. As the power and scope of this technology expand, so does the need for privacy protection. Drones can be used to investigate known crimes. But they are also sensors that can generate offenses," said American Civil Liberties Union's Project on Speech, Privacy, and Technology senior policy analyst Jay Stanley.
In response, the police said that these drones are not used for routine patrols and that they refrain from using them at the Black Lives Matter protests because it is against their internal policy.
Perhaps these concerns by the people are not unwarranted since the police had a history of abusing their powers.
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