Police Arming Drones. It’s Happening.

The issue of police surveillance has taken an interesting turn in the past year. We are aware that drones are used by police departments across the country, but a new bill that was passed in Grand Forks County, ND was indicative of what was surely to come. Armed drones.

Armed Drones for Cops Are Now Legal: North Dakota police will be free to fire Tasers or te… http://t.co/hd9Q74GWv2 #gop #dem #politics

— Robert W. Neill, Jr. (@rwneilljr) August 26, 2015

The true issue seems to be sidelined by arguments that really don’t address the real problem. Are armed drones really necessary?

The problem isn’t that local police shouldn’t be able to use advanced technology in catching criminals; it’s that in the wrong hands it can violate civil liberties and cause panic within communities who are not confident in their local law enforcement to use such technology in the most ethical and law-abiding way.

A nightmare scenario would be an armed drone in the wrong hands. We can see an example of this when a Connecticut teen built a homemade armed drone back in July. It caught the attention of local law enforcement and the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) citing concern over the threat of public safety and safety of law enforcement.

Connecticut teen builds homemade “flying gun.” Scary? Perhaps. Illegal? Not quite: http://t.co/T5cjjePVcV http://t.co/0bLYvpx7OJ

— CBSN (@CBSNLive) July 23, 2015

Many states have passed bills just this year prohibiting weaponized drones for everyone, not limited to only civilians. Should it be prohibited in all states for both civilians and law enforcement? Many say, yes. The concern over not only privacy, but safety, outweighs the concern of a criminal being on the loose. And rightly so. This isn’t just about privacy concerns, it’s much bigger.

Assemblyman explains why he pushed law regulating drone use
http://t.co/lUYXG9RBS4 pic.twitter.com/sJJcrFecZJ

— LasVegasSun (@LasVegasSun) July 27, 2015

As we have seen it takes only one instance that makes headlines where laws are overturned and the previous concerns are no longer taken into consideration. For instance; imagine a situation where an armed drone is said to have saved lives. Under pressure states across the country would reexamine whether they would allow law enforcement to use such technology. It would only be a matter of time before we are all faced with our state considering such a move.

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