Police Drones and Civil Liberties - Research Paper Example

Police Drones and Civil Liberties Introduction Police drones refer to automatons which were formed by Isaac Sumdac and are used in law enforcement according to Pieterse (2004). The police drones are used were first used in Detroit’s police department and are now used in the same department in many parts if the world. A drone is defined as a transformer-related machine with an artificial intelligence program without a spark and a true sentience. Police drone is one type of unmanned aerial vehicles used by police agency in surveillance of the citizens. Civil liberties refer to the rights and freedoms that are granted to the individuals as guard of their lives. The use of police drones is for ensuring that the civil liberties of the individual are not violated. However in some countries, most of the police drones are used during training practices as part of pilot program. In countries like the United States aerial drones are used in law enforcement in domestic capacity. The department of Defense in the United States has argued that war in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq has been changed by the use of the drone technology. The Use of Police Drone and Its Effect on Civil Liberty In Britain the police department has developed plans for using the drones in monitoring road services. This involves monitoring speed of vehicles, traffic jam, and even vehicle theft among others. Through this police can keep track of civilians who violate the driver regulations. It is used for collecting road data for traffic police making work more efficient. They are also used in supervising public events such as presidential conference. In most of the developed countries, the police drones are used in monitoring the behavior of individuals in a public gathering to ensure security. According to Solan, Tiersma and Conley (2005), this has been an important activity as protects individuals’ freedom of movement without fear. The police are also able to keep track of events in a public gathering even from far thus maintaining peace. Police drones are used in covert urban surveillance. This facilitates effective maintenance of security in urban areas where cases of insecurity are many. Since the drone is remote controlled it can be relocated in dangerous places without fear of losing an individuals life through attacks. It allows police officers to record the public activities with high-resolution without having to move for their security according to Gill and Phythian (2006). These activities include criminal acts and attacks by enemies. Police agency uses the drone in gathering information about dangerous pales for the officers. It has been applied mostly by the United States army when attacking countries like Iraq and Pakistan. The police have claimed to use the drone in surveillance of maritime activities. Here the drone is used for detecting immigrants from foreign countries, shipping activities such as smuggling of drugs. Due to their increased pervasive surveillance citizens are questioning the machine’s importance in watching over their lives. Police Drone Surveillance and Civil Liberty The police drones have been used by countries like the United States in its attacks. Such transformative technology in war has always resulted to adverse ethical implications on civil liberty. The increased use of the drones in war combined with ineffective accountability is an indicator of normalization of previous unfair policing levels and abuse of office by police officers. As suggested by Drake (2010), this is because their activities can also be monitored by their officers using the drones. For instance, Pennsylivia governor had to apologize after it was revealed that there was spying of pro-immigrant activists and antiwar and environmentalists against drilling of natural gas. Drone surveillance has been applied on American soils following the heavy profits, public demand and technology. With the urgent need for Federal Aviation Administration to open regulations, the country is doing nothing to ensure civil liberty for the citizens. For this purpose a drone which is insect- sized and capable of flying through open windows is being developed for protecting the countries privacy. The FAA and the American Civil Liberty Union are planning to engage in monitoring and regulating use of drone in private surveillance. They are interested in a backpack sized drone because they a cheap for monitoring and tracking activities. The American Civil Liberty Union concern is on the persistent aerial surveillance and privacy invasion. In the moment, it has been used in monitoring of wildlife, crops and utility corridors enhancing environmental regulation. It has come to the notice of American Civil Liberty Union that other civilian personnel and contractors are using the drone. This is a big challenge to the government since attacks on civilians by these groups can be blamed on the government military according to Schaap (2002). The issue of controversy is that if these groups may interfere with individual liberty, since they are not accountable to any authority. The use of drone has raised concern in the UK government after some police departments have been found using unlicensed drones. This has led to government launching group to investigate the safety of using the machine in civil airspace. The Civil Aviation Authority has established it that for safety of civil liberty, they must be satisfied with operation of the police drone. For instance, CAA questions the drone’s ability to recognize unexpected obstacle and how it can handle such a situation. The use of drones in Britain has been restricted in protection of civil liberty due to the countries concern on invasion of privacy. The European Defense Agency has engaged in research aimed at identifying how to use satellite in communicating with drones while on space. The Importance of Police Drones in Ensuring Civil Liberties First the machines are protective as they can be operated from far and their presence while on space can not be noticed. This ensures that the police gather information without fear of attacks. Secondly this machine helps the police to handle their investigations without interfering with the rights of individual such arresting innocent citizens unawares. This is because the police drone tracks events as they occur and the images are sent to the person controlling and then recorded. Thirdly, drones are authorized tools of war and their power compared to that of other weapons mostly preferred. They have a higher precision level which discriminates more compared to civilian targets. The use of drone by police ensures effective security maintenance. This is because of the information collected using these machines out of human interference. Another importance of these machines is that they are their use is only targeted in battlefields and thus their likelihood of interfering with law-abiding citizens is limited. Through the use of police drones, police agencies are able to operate in a wider area which could not have been able manually. Therefore the use of police drones is more convenient way of conducting investigations. The use of drones ensures that rights of the individual are protected as there is constant monitoring of attacks. Therefore civil liberty is better maintained through the use of this machine. According to Coleman and McCahill (2010), compared to the old modes of surveillance the current modes including the use of drone are useful in conducting investigations in a large society. Criticism over the Use of Police Drones in Surveillance There has been a lot of criticism against the use of police drone in as far as civil liberty is concerned. For instance, some critics have argued that this machine invades law-abiding citizens undermining their confidence to the environment. As a result of this, the police department is establishing a code through enquiring from citizens to mention what they think should be included in the code. Thus the effects of the drone to civil liberty will rarely receive criticism. Under the code police officers will include what they will use the drone for, why and its advantage to the society. The code will also indicate how private data is handled for confidentiality. The Use of the drone has been criticized of invading individuals’ privacy since the public has not been consulted on their use. The critics have argued that there is a need for public opinion on the use of the drones by the police. Critics have also argued that the use of drone in detecting maritime activities minimizes the concern of civil liberty. This is because those engaged in maritime activity are not free to conduct their business compared to those working in other closed areas. Therefore their motive is that if the machine should be applied in all areas without limiting only some individuals thus undermining some individuals’ liberty. The use of police drones has been criticized of causing caviling death tolls. This is because the developed countries have used these machines to locate their areas of attack. In the process of war many civilians end up losing their lives. For instance, United States has used police drones in their attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq where many civilian deaths have been reported as suggested by Miller, Hess and Orthmann (2007). It has also been claimed that police tend to use what is meant for civilian protection against the civilian. Therefore the point is whether the Drone will really protect civilian liberty or will threaten civilian liberty. For instance the drones can be used by thugs in conjunction with the police to spy the right areas to engage in robbery. Critics against the use of the drone have argued that the countries can be sued by the international law community and other international bodies who view this program as target killing. The American Civil Liberty Union has claimed that targeted killing by the use of drones violates the laws of the war according to Long (2007). It has been claimed by critics that governments have not clearly stated who is responsible for authorizing drone surveillance and the right Target. The US government has also been criticized of not solving the issue of civilians who have been killed inadvertently due to the use of drones. The use of drones has been criticized as being insufficient especially during summer. At this time the Drone is said to experience software problem and it can crash while on space causing destruction. Police drones have been criticized of causing high rate of accident as opposed to manned aircrafts. There is likelihood of the machine slipping from the police control causing an accident. Critics have also questioned the ability of the machine handle communication while on space. For instance how the handler will control it once it loses direction and its location once it crushes. Thus the issue of controlling the drone and how to control it effectively without crashing has been a major debate. The ability of the drone to sense and avoid manned aircrafts while on space has been questioned by critics. Conclusion Drones have remained of interest to police and other military personnel as important tools of surveillance. They can also be used by immigration authorities in monitoring the countries coastline. They have been used in different occasion and in a useful way, for instance in rescue and search services. The use of Police drones has improved surveillance activities thus taking the issue of security of the individual to greater heights. However, some critics have argued that these drones are against protecting civil liberty. This is true because the use of drones has led to increased instances of war as it proofs to be safer compared to other means of surveillance. The use of unmanned machines has also threatened human privacy as individual activities are subject to monitoring even if they are confidential. Despite police drones are only part of surveillance technology applied in robotics technology. The biggest challenge is that this technology may not be possible in the developing countries. Thus these countries might be taken advantage of by the developed countries. The Federal Aviation Administration of the US is questioning the safety of the police using the drones. Thus it is requirement by FAA for those police departments in need of drones to ask for emergency authorization. As a result of this, the use of drones in law enforcement is currently rare. References: Coleman, R, & Mccahill, M. (2010). Surveillance and Crime. California: SAGE Publications Ltd. Drake, M. (2010). Political Sociology for a Globalizing World. Cambridge: Polity. Gill, P. & Phythian, M. (2006). Intelligence in an insecure world. Cambridge: Polity. Long,D. (2007). Protect Your Privacy: How to Protect Your Identity as Well as Your Financial, Personal, and Computer Records in an Age of Constant Surveillance. Guilford: Globe Pequot. Miller, L, Hess, K. & Orthmann, C. (2007). Community Policing: Partnerships for Problem Solving. Michigan: Cengage Learning. Pieterse, J. (2004). Globalization or empire? London: Routledge. Schaap, F. (2002). The words that took us there: ethnography in a virtual reality. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis. Solan, L, Tiersma,P. & Conley, J. (2005). Speaking of crime: the language of criminal justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Read More