Amazon Patents Police Traffic Stop Drone

The future is now, ladies and gents. Tech giant Amazon just recently secured a patent for small shoulder-mounted police drones. Referred to as “unmanned aerial vehicle assistants”, these devices could be used to provide enhanced support for police during routine traffic stops. Unlike body-mounted cameras such as GoPros, these drones would allow police to examine a pulled-over vehicle before even approaching in person. This has obvious implications on the safety of citizens as well as police officers.

On the flipside, without appropriate policies and accountability, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine significant breaches of our civil liberties. If outfitted with surveillance mechanisms, these drones could engage in a ton of sneaky maneuvers, from audio-recording to thermal scanning. According to Shankar Narayan, technology and liberty project director for the America Civil Liberties Union in Seattle, “The devices, if put into wide use, would no doubt raise new questions about police use of technology […] In a traffic stop, for example, such a drone could fly around the vehicle conducting a search of the inside of the car without an officer ever establishing the required probable cause for such a search“.

Somehow I can’t help but be reminded of those creepy spider robots from Minority Report.

If you’ve been convicted of a driving infraction or offence, call Ginzburg Legal in Montreal to speak with a criminal defense lawyer.

Ginzburg Legal
405 Rue Marie-Morin
Montréal QC
H2Y 2Y1
(514) 710-6749