Oscar Perez

LEPS 550

21 November 2019

Assignment #4: Crime Data: The Next Generation

Sir,

This is my reply to your request to research a technology that I believe will have a large impact

on law enforcement and the type of data/information it can present and capture for the advancement of

law enforcements efficiency in policing. The technology that I will be discussing is drones. The following

is a look into drones, the usage of drones in law enforcement, the valuable information obtained from

drones for law enforcement, and possible future functionality of drones for law enforcement.

Drones also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are aircrafts that can be piloted and

utilized without having an operator on board. Drones are operated by a user who controls the actions and

maneuvers of the unit through a remote/controller. The first major successful utilization and

demonstration of these unmanned aerial vehicles was by the united stated armed forces in warfare during

the 1991 Gulf War.  In 2015, drones became increasingly available as the Federal Aviation

Administration which oversees aerial regulation, permitted the commercial usage of these vehicles

(Howell, 2018). There is a wide variety of designs and capabilities for drones which most are relatively

inexpensive, portable, user-friendly, and have different capabilities that can be beneficial to law

enforcement. The popularity of these vehicles made it an estimated 20 billion dollar market. 

 Being that this new tool is available, police departments across the country have jumped at the

opportunity to use this valuable asset to better and more efficiently handle law enforcement matters. From

2016-2018, there has been a 518% percent rise in drone usage and approximately 347 law enforcement

agencies utilize drones during tactical operation (Drone USA, 2018).  Besides tactical operations,  law

enforcement in the United States has used drones for Search and Rescue, Active Shooter incidents,

Analyzing/documentation of scenes, Surveillance, Major traffic incidents, and bomb investigations to

name a few(Rice,2019). Drones during search and rescue can be used to locate missing people and cover

massive areas during light and night times which can save valuable time. In active shooter situations,

drones can be used to pinpoint a shooter's location, determine if a suspect is still armed and dangerous,

follow a suspect, and formulate a safe plan to resolve a solution to keep officers and civilians safe.

Regarding traffic incidents, drones can quickly and accurately map scenes. In surveillance, this

technology allows officers to be discreet, scout areas, and follow people of interest without being in

harm’s way.  Drones during a bomb investigation can enter, cover, and monitor areas from views that

officers cannot physically reach.

From these aerial view point’s drones can collect, locate, capture, follow, and document evidence,

suspects, and scenes so they are not disturbed by officers which allows for the collection of valuable data

that law enforcement and crime analyst can use to more efficiently and safely police. Further the

collection of digital data such as speed, height, GPS coordinates, and flight records can reveal information

about the criminal’s involved and physical data like fingerprints and DNA (Interpol, 2018). System

integration in drones is possible and something our department could benefit from. Deploying drones with

our integrated in-house NIBRS system would properly track crimes, circumstances, victims, known

offenders, relationships between victims and offenders, arrestees, property involved in crimes, time

frame, and geographic areas/zone which could produce real-time information and a more complete data

set. The capability of integration of our NIBRS like in-house system would also minimize human error of

inputting improper data to better improve crime tracking and data for our department. This more efficient

collection of crime data will allow our law enforcement leaders to make evidence-based decisions to

create and implement informed policies and procedures and efficiently allocate resources to better serve a

community, its officers, and prevent/solve crime (Nisleit, 2019). For line-level officers, this instant

efficient data from drones and its system would be available to track current crimes and patterns which is

currently something that is not available in our department. For crime analysts, more efficient data

produced from drones can produce better data to track crime trends and solve investigations.
 Drones already possess the potential to assist law enforcement in the collection and understanding

of crime data for the above-listed reasons.  Future technological advancements in drones allow for the

possibility of even better collection and understanding of crime data to make evidence-based decisions.

Some of the future advancements in drones consist of facial recognition capability which would allow for

the identification/tracking of suspects, terrorist surveillance, and locating of missing people (Chen, 2019).

Thermal imaging is a future capability that could be integrated into drones that can be extremely helpful

in dark conditions because of its capability to detect heat sources of suspects and missing people in search

and rescue. The integration of automatic license plate recognition readers on a drone could track, recover,

and monitor the movement of stolen vehicles and vehicles of interest as drones could capture aerial views

of numerous cars unlike traditional LPRS mounted on vehicles which only capture street-level views.

These and other add-ons and technological advancements in drones will make drones a major part of

policing.

In conclusion, technology is important in the future of law enforcement because of the impact it

will have on the scope and type of data available from it in the next 5 to 10 years. The technology I feel

will benefit law enforcement the most in collecting, understanding, and tracking crime data to make

evidence-based decisions regarding policy, procedure, and allocation of resources to better police are

drones. Drone's current and future capabilities allow crime analysts, officers, and law enforcement leaders

to more efficiently and effectively investigate, solve, track, and deter crime to improve the quality of life

and safety for the community being served.  It is important during the implementation of new, potentially

controversial technology, for police departments to engage the community in decision making and

implementation to promote transparency and trust.

Reference
Chen, Sheng Wei. “Face Recognition on Drones: Issues and Limitations.” Face Recognition on Drones: Issues
and Limitations, 2019, www.iis.sinica.edu.tw/~swc/pub/face_recognition_on_drones.html.

Fritsvold, E., & Nisleit, D. (2019). LEPS 550 Community Assessment. Module 4 Presentation 1 Transcript –
Spotlight Expert Chief David Nisleit: Data, Community Policing & Doing More with Less. Retrieved
from https://ole.sandiego.edu/ultra/courses/_58894_1/cl/outline

Interpol. “Drone Technology: Security Threats and Benefits for Police Focus of INTERPOL Forum.”
INTERPOL, 2018, www.interpol.int/en/News-and-Events/News/2018/Drone-technology-security-threats-
and-benefits-for-police-focus-of-INTERPOL-forum.

Howell, Elizabeth. “What Is A Drone?” Space.com, Space, 3 Oct. 2018, www.space.com/29544-what-is-a-

drone.html.

Rice, Stephen. “10 Ways That Police Use Drones To Protect And Serve.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 7 Oct. 2019,
www.forbes.com/sites/stephenrice1/2019/10/07/10-ways-that-police-use-drones-to-protect-and-
serve/#4b4279a46580.

USA, Drone. “5 Ways Drones Benefit Police.” Drone USA, 2018, www.droneusainc.com/articles/5-ways-drones-
benefit-police.

Voldavinos, Maria. Community Policing & Unmanned Aircraft Systems. 2016,

rems.ed.gov/docs/COPS_Community-Policing-UAS.pdf.