Armed drones, deployed in Texas

Police in Montgomery County, Texas,  have deployed their first armed drones.

The first thing I thought on reading this was, frankly, “Uh-oh.”

Even the farcical idea of these little winged robots crashing into one another – operators are worried about the possibility of mid air collisions since the drones’ single camera can’t focus on a suspect and where they are going at the same time – didn’t distract me for long.

The current generation of drones in Montgomery County may only be armed with “tazers” and “stun batons,” but they, like most drones, have the capability to carry much more deadly weapons – a fact which hasn’t escaped the notice of South Africa’s Defence Minister, who admits that while drones commissioned to target Rhino poachers will initially be used in arrests, “more drastic measures” are already on the horizon.

Clearly, then, it’s a small step from Texas’ stun batons and tazers to police drones which can shoot to kill, and before that step is taken we have to start asking the big questions:

1) How can a drone inform a suspect of their rights, or the reasons for their arrest?

2) How does a policeman “on the ground,” controlling his drone from a video game console, calculate the level of ‘reasonable force” to be used in carrying out an arrest?

3) How often will he get that calculation right?

4) What of the lesson we should have learned from the death of Jean Charles de Menezes: even the wrong man will run if you chase him? And how much more likely is this if he’s being chased by an armed and dangerous flying robot?

It’s not just Texas or South Africa either; surveillance drones have already led to at least two arrests here in the UK. Recently a spokesperson for Merseyside police looked forward to their use in Merseyside’s “war on crime and anti-social behaviour.”

The idea of police engaged in a “war” with anyone should set alarm bells ringing. The centuries old legal protections offered to the citizen against the power of the state may be about to be thrown out the window – and how much more likely is this when a “police war” can be conducted by remote control?