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- Title
CAN ARMED DRONES HALT THE TREND OF INCREASING POLICE MILITARIZATION?
- Authors
THRESHER, IAN
- Abstract
Following presidential declarations of "war" on drugs and terror, domestic law enforcement agencies were saddled with difficult and dangerous new duties. They responded to the danger by becoming more dangerous themselves; increasingly adopting the training, tactics, and equipment of the United States military. This "militarization " of domestic police officers has, predictably, led to a breakdown in community policing, almost one thousand fatal shootings by police officers per year, and growing rifts between law enforcement agencies and the communities they are sworn to protect. In this essay, I examine whether police drones armed with non-deadly force might, perhaps paradoxically, help to curb police militarization and reduce the risk of direct, armed confrontation between, civilians and police officers. I argue that while there are some drawbacks with the use of armed drones, their unique ability to keep police officers out of harm's way, thereby negating the legal justification far the use of deadly force, would halt the need for further police militarization and dramatically reduce the number of fatal police shootings.
- Subjects
MILITARIZATION of police; LAW enforcement agencies; POLICE shootings; DRONE aircraft; GRAHAM v. Connor (Supreme Court case); POLICE brutality; POLICE SWAT teams
- Publication
Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy, 2017, Vol 31, Issue 2, p455
- ISSN
0883-3648
- Publication type
Article