This thread is about UNARMED drones used by domestic law enforcement officials in the USA (as I do not know the laws in Europe/Canada and wont talk about what I dont know)

Now I take criminal justice classes (which pertains to this subject as I know Supreme Court cases and the constitutional limits imposed on the law enforcement) and am a future cop, so my views might be a bit slanted

But onto the point, what are your thoughts of using unarmed drones (what ever they maybe) on citizens. Should LE be required to just get a search warrant or would they need another kind of warrant OR should it not be allowed at all?

Now here are some examples are their most practical (and probably most common) uses:

A silver/amber alert has been issued and even though that garners lots of man power an unmanned, untiring, 25 USD per hour operational cost drone would be invaluable in locating the missing person. (This has no constitutional conflictions)

A SWAT team has a hostage situation on their hands and the gunmen are held up in a house. A drone using thermal imaging would work much like a Call of Duty "spy-plane", locating the targets and hostages and even IDing what type of weapons they have weither handguns, shotguns, rifles, SMG's and so forth. (Being able to search a house with thermal imaging can be done without a warrant if life is in danger, life being in danger makes it a reasonable search)

A known drug dealer is selling hard [censored] like angel dust and meth. Tracking his whereabouts without him knowing LE is following him. (This can be done by only following him in public places. Searching inside the house with thermal imaging cannot be done without a warrant. But you have no right to privacy in a public place.)

Now lets be civil, I WILL alert mods if you insult people "your an idiot, stupid etc", no cop bashing -.- and while Im not going to do link it or dont post at all, if your trying to make a good point try and link it so we can get the full context and lastly have fun, intelligent debates are good fun if we can keep thick skin and dont take anything personal.

Hmmm we dont have these kinds of things here in Canada (My pops an RCMP officer), but I support it, could save someones life or get valuable info to bust criminal scum.

Plus it only costs 25 USD an hour to operate a drone, its about 500 USD an hour to operate a helicopter.

That's actually.. really interesting. I have to ask though, what's invasive to privacy about thermal imaging? I think I'd best understand that before I make the blatant choice of "THERMAL IMAGE ALL THE THINGS".

Even without knowing, assuming it is invasive, that would be awesome to have. It'd be a much better resource to have than having to launch a helicopter every time there's a crime worth having overwatch for.

Even more reason to support these drones, cheaper and more efficient.

US Supreme Court has already stated the use of thermal imaging needs a search warrant. See Kyllo v. United States

This could turn very political, but i'll leave it at that due to my personal opinions.

As for the topic at hand, I think law enforcement should be allowed to use drones in certain situations. Conspiracy theorists make it sound like cops will run these things 24/7, and use them for giggles to peep on women who are in the shower. I can certainly see the potential of these being used for ill intent, however, I strongly feel the good outweighs the bad. Ideal scenario in my opinion would be a person who is on the run and a Helicopter would take too long to get in the air. The officer in question would go to the trunk of his patrol car, fly one of these over a densely wooded area with an IR camera on the drone, and direct his partner to the suspect.

Also, as Aronforth mentions, a drone is pretty dang cheap compared to a helicopter. Not to mention you only lose a piece of hardware if the drone goes down due to mechanical problems. A helicopter goes down, you have to worry about the pilot + additional people.

Drones would also be quieter. I can hear a heli before I can see it, with a small drone I doubt I would be able to hear or see it at distance.