Border security issues (week 10) - Essay Example

Law Week 10: Border Security and the use of Drones After the September 11 attacks, the national surveillance laws changed immediately. The overnight revision of these laws led to the government’s new move to spy on its citizens. In addition, the government also increased its power to challenge any person or corporation that challenged the searches it conducted in court. Page 489, of Carmen’s book, shows that the revision of these laws took place because of the U.S. Patriot Act, which increases the surveillance powers of the government.

Today, it is not surprising to learn that law enforcement agencies are using unmanned drones for surveillance purposes, not only for terrorists’ activities but within and around the borders. Drones are radio-controlled aircrafts or ships or in unmanned aerial vehicles abbreviated as UAV (NOVA, 2013). According to Jones (2013), currently, the law enforcement agency officials say that such spy programs are useful when it comes to border surveillance, even when they are costly. Jones points out that each drone goes for $18 million and its support systems (Jones, 2013).

Such activities carried out at the border by the law enforcement agencies are helpful because they are the key to protecting the American citizens.Nonetheless, there is an extent to which such technology is useful. Using this technology to threaten individual privacy rights as guaranteed by the American constitution is not the solution to defeating terrorists and drug gangs at the border. On a domestic level, drones are used when there are criminal investigations as a way of finding missing persons, when there are natural disasters and monitoring hostage situations.

Drones should not be used on Americans who are not criminals to check their travel patterns, banks that they visit and carrying out searches on people’s neighborhoods and houses without court orders. According to Cornwell (2013), domestic drones look like small helicopters and radios. Though they are flown by hobbyist, there is a possibility that they have cameras that are used to capture people (Cornwell, 2013). According to Cornwell (2013), domestic drones can take pictures of people’s backyards because the Federal Aviation Administration approved the use of more than 1,400 drones in 2006.

This abuses the privacy rights that Americans are entitled to as citizens.ReferencesCarmen, R. (2013). Criminal procedure: Law and practice. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.Cornwell, L. (2013, April 08). Drone regulations: Spying concerns prompt states to consider legislation. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/04/drone-regulations_n_3704307.htmlJones, T. (2013, September 24). U.S. set to deploy more drones along U.S. borders, despite concerns about effectiveness and cost.

Retrieved from http://cronkite.asu.edu/buffett/canada/drones.html NOVA. (2013). Rise of the drones [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/rise-of-the-drones.html