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Kayla Pierce
Research Paper
Wilmington University
10 December 2017
The Revolution of Drone Usage Within Criminal Justice
Abstract
The use of technology in the policing domain has been rapidly adopted over the past few
years. However, it should be noted that the process of adopting and effectively using technology
in law enforcement, begun more than 50 years ago. As a matter of fact, it became apparent in the
1950’s that the computer would enable easier storage and retrieval of large amounts of data.
More recently, advancement in technology has created a diverse and sophisticated form of
surveillance through the retrieval of a wireless transmission connected directly to a network
computer, which therefore “aid the law enforcement process” (Wuschka, 2011, pg. 891).
Through this unique technology the criminal justice branch has found various aspects of
technology useful to this effect; predominantly, the usage of drones has consequently received a
lot of attention within the past few years of the surveillance era (Wuschka, 2011, pg. 891).
Introduction – A Brief History of Drones
Drones commonly are defined as “an unmanned aircraft or ship guided by remote control
or onboard computers,” however within the criminal justice branch this valuable piece of
technology is given the definition of “an unmanned aerial vehicle” with a purpose to ensure
justice (Drone, Merriam-Web). Therefore, a drone is considered an aircraft without a pilot on
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board that has its flight controlled either autonomously by computer in the vehicle or under
remote control by a pilot on the ground. The first attempt at creating one of these “unmanned
aerial vehicles” was the “Aerial Target” by A.M. Low’s in 1916 but the first production was of a
Remote Piloted Vehicle by movie star Reginald Denny in 1935 (Siegel, 2013, pg. 235). Then, in
1959 the start of United States UAVs program began when the U.S. started planning the use of
unmanned aircraft’s over the “fear of losing the lives of pilots in hostile regions” (Siegel, 2013,
pg. 237). Between August 2nd and August 4th, during the conflict at Tonkin Gulf the U.S.
deployed highly classified UAVs into combat the Vietnam War in 1964. When pictures were
shown of destroyed drones by Wide World Photos, the official U.S. response was “no comment”
(Siegel, 2013, pg. 238). With a technology that had been attempted for 60 years and the U.S.
being the first to use them under military control, why is this breakthrough in technology not
