Drones Are a Source of Concern

I was reading with interest about a recent escape at a prison in South Carolina. The inmate used wire cutters and other "tools" like mobile phones believed to be dropped from a drone to coordinate his escape from a maximum-security prison. According to prison officials, he wasn't noticed missing for 18 hours from the Lieber Correctional Institution outside Charleston, South Carolina. Fortunately, the outcome of this prison break was good in that the inmate was captured 1200 miles away in Austin, Texas.

With the advent of this new technology, drones are a new source of concern for law enforcement as well as the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA now receives over 100 reports of unmanned aircraft each month in restricted areas like airports.

The border patrols are now seeing increased drug activity involving drones flying across the Mexican -American border areas. This has forced the United States to provide the Border Patrol with large blimps to detect incoming drones trying to smuggle drugs across the border. In many cases, law enforcement does not have the right to shoot down these drones in question. The White House wants Congress to draft legislation to deal with this issue.

Just about anyone can purchase a drone. Amazon reports its #1 drone sold goes for only $130…a drop in the bucket for drug dealers. Like everything else, drones can be used for good use and bad. It’s the bad that concerns me and it should you as well.