The Law’s New Eye in the Sky

(by Ana Campoy, The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com) DALLAS – Drones, the remote-controlled aircraft used in combat zones, are now hovering over some U.S. cities as police enlist them to get a bird’s-eye view of crime scenes and accidents at relatively low expense.

But as financially strapped municipalities add drones to their crime-fighting arsenal, they are facing increasing questions about the vehicles’ safety, as well as their potential to violate citizens’ privacy.

Law-enforcement officials say the unmanned aircraft help avoid putting police in the line of fire, either by performing surveillance close to the ground, like a live officer, or by monitoring from high up, removing pilots from potential danger. Earlier this year, a police helicopter in Los Angeles had to make an emergency landing after it was shot at by a gunman.

Drones are also considerably cheaper than regular aircraft. Officials in Montgomery County, near Houston, Texas, estimate it costs $30 an hour to operate a drone, compared with a minimum of $500 an hour for a helicopter. The purchase price of a drone is typically less than that of a chopper or plane, too.

That math was attractive to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, which recently used a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to purchase a $300,000 drone called the Shadowhawk, made by Vanguard Defense Industries LLC, of Conroe, Texas. It comes equipped with an infrared camera that can detect the heat emitted by a person below. In addition to crime-fighting assistance, officials say, that will help track lost hikers in a nearby national forest.

“We certainly do not have the funds to go out and purchase our own helicopter,” said Randy McDaniel, the office’s chief deputy.

Most departments say the small craft aren’t suitable for high-speed chases of suspects. But police are finding they can help with other duties, including monitoring crowds at parades, performing reconnaissance ahead of raids and helping ground officers respond more quickly to accidents such as highway pileups and hazardous-material spills.

Because of increasing demand for small unmanned aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration is devising new rules to regulate their flight. A proposal is expected in January.

The FAA grants permits to operate drones on a case-by-case basis, depending on their planned use. As of September, there were 285 active permits requested by 85 government groups, including public universities, federal law-enforcement agencies and police departments.

However, some airplane pilots complain that the rules set by those individual permits are largely unknown to the rest of the flying public. Heidi Williams, of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said that drones should be subject to a set of standard rules, just like manned aircraft.

“There has to be some way for them to integrate safely into the airspace system,” she said.

Though drones have been used by the military for decades, they are still relatively new in law enforcement on U.S. soil. The models used by police are smaller and unarmed, weigh less than 55 pounds and are maneuvered from the ground through a computer or a joystick. Their range varies from a few hundred to several thousand feet in altitude, and their price from $5,000 for in-house-fabricated models to several hundred thousand dollars.

Vanguard Defense, the company that made the Montgomery County drone, markets its law-enforcement units through in-person presentations and at industry trade shows such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, said Michael S. Buscher, the company’s chief executive.

Civil-rights advocates worry the technology could be used to pry into citizens’ lives.

“There’s a question about the degree to which Americans are going to be able to preserve the privacy of movement that we’ve all enjoyed,” said Catherine Crump, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.

In response to such concerns, some agencies are setting guidelines that allow the flight of drones only for specific missions, rather than random air patrols.

Andrew Cohen, a sergeant with the Miami-Dade Police Department, said its two units were reserved for emergencies, and hadn’t been deployed a single time since the agency got a flying permit for them six months ago.

Another challenge for police is changing the drone’s public image.

“We are purposely not calling these drones. When people hear the word ‘drone’ they automatically think of the huge military-type aircraft equipped with weapons,” said Lt. Chad Gann of the Arlington police department.

He prefers the term “small unmanned aircraft” to describe the two units his department is buying. Mr. Gann said they will help jump-start fatal-crash investigations by arriving to the scene sooner and taking aerial pictures, saving money and officers’ time.

In Columbia, S.C., police planning a raid on a house where an armed man had barricaded himself used a small drone to get details of the property, such as the direction in which the door opened, said Ruben Santiago, deputy chief of operations. “It cut down on the time it would take for us to do the necessary surveillance,” he said.

Mr. Cohen, at the Miami-Dade Police Department, said that whenever the drones make their debut, residents don’t have to worry about the aircraft sneaking up on them, because they sound like flying lawn mowers.

“It’s not stealth technology at all,” he said.

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. Visit the website at wsj.com.