By Harrison Leone
Assistant Sports Editor
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a Draganflyer X6 surveillance and assault drone!
It’s just one of many new models of unmanned aerial vehicles becoming increasingly common in American skies. While drones are typically associated with attacks on terrorists in the Middle East, they are becoming more prevalent in both the domestic arena and the private sector.
The presence of these devices could have dire implications for individual privacy in addition to increasing the scope of government power to near-Orwellian levels.
The sophistication of drones, officially known as “unmanned aircraft systems,” has moved forward at lightning speed. According to a Feb. 3 Time article, the Pentagon is in possession of drones capable of detecting an object a half-foot long from nearly four miles in the sky.
The Nano Air Vehicle, also Pentagon-made, weighs 19 grams, is the size of a hummingbird and has a high-tech video camera. In the last decade, the capabilities of drones have gotten greater as even many of the lesser-models are now furnished with altimeters, GPS systems and the like.
Even at their more basic levels, drones are frightening, inhuman creatures. When bedecked with such complex and intrusive surveillance equipment, they truly become cause for concern.
Drones have become so cheap to construct that they are currently being sold on the open market for only $300. What will happen when one of these products, which can be operated from a smartphone and are equipped with HD cameras, inevitably finds its way onto the black market and falls into the wrong hands? Armed with such technology, it would be possible for criminals to scope out potential crime scenes or gain information about law enforcement officials.
In a preemptive move, state and local police forces have been beefing up their drone arsenals. In states such as North Dakota and Colorado, county sheriffs are using drones to track suspects. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been un-manning the skies of the desert southwest for seven years, according to the Time article.
Vesting so much power in the police does, however, have potential drawbacks, such as profiling innocent civilians or effectively giving governments at every level a permanent eye in the sky.
Of course, drones are not without their benefits and their practical implications and will undoubtedly improve efficiency in many areas. Besides law enforcement, drones are currently employed in a wide range of purposes, including environmental studies, the transportation of medicine and supplies to disaster-struck locales and recreational hunting. Setting aside the morally dubious nature of international drone strikes, unmanned vehicles keep troops off the battlefield and out of harm’s way.
It appears our society rests on the tip of the drone iceberg. With increases in technology and demand, we should expect to see a much more visible presence of these wonders of modern science. Ripped straight from the pages of a science-fiction novel, drones can provide unprecedented levels of around-the-clock surveillance.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” The message of this quote continues to ring true. The question we must answer now is, how much power are we willing to entrust to the government to keep constant tabs on its citizens?
As with any burgeoning technology, it is our responsibility to keep a watchful eye on drones and their uses, lest we sacrifice privacy and liberty for the sake of security.
