Drones and Law Enforcement

The media has shown us the many drone applications are being used by law enforcement. “Will drones get pinged by radar?” is asked by many observers. This makes drones even more desirable, because many of them can’t.

Additionally, there is a fantastic range of uses today. We are seeing things like drones observing illegal horse doping before a horse race to requests for law enforcement for weaponized drones.

Drones proved to be very useful during the aftermath of the awful shooting in Las Vegas. These flying machines are putting law enforcement in the thick of things when it comes to fighting crime.

Perhaps the essential use of a drone for police authorities is optical zoom and thermal imaging. This is logical because these abilities greatly enhance surveillance, which is a significant way to prevent criminal activities in the first place. It can catch crimes before they happen; it provides evidence to put them away legally.

Search and rescue missions are another areas where the drone can significantly assist law enforcement agencies. We’ve all witnessed examples of this on TV. People get lost in the woods or stranded on a rooftop during a flood, and authorities are frantically trying to save them. Drones can significantly assist by delivering water and lifejackets.

Another use for drones is traffic collision reconstructions. Unlike a human, drones can sit on top of anything and record for hours. They also do not need any outside attention or potty breaks. They work autonomously and carry out their mission as commanded.

Then there’s the active shooter scenario, which has become way too familiar these days. Drones could greatly assess this deadly scenario. They could quickly provide a wealth of up-to-date information that would help deescalate the situation. Drones could not only get more data quickly, but they would also do so without endangering more people. Of course, as law enforcement advocates for using drones in these situations, there are privacy and civil liberties activists who strongly oppose these actions.

And then there’s general surveillance. It becomes the eye in the sky and watches all things with high image quality. It’s much more affordable; it’s efficient and very appealing to those who need the technology. This is a vast topic of enormous, polarizing consequences and better left for a separate discussion. Many people in our nation are very frightened about someone possessing this type of technology in their arsenal.

And finally, there’s crowd monitoring by drones. This gives law enforcement a pristine view of any suspicious characters within a crowd during public events.