Review article
Drones in (Slovene) criminal investigation
Slak Boštjan
; Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security
Abstract
Unmanned aircrafts, also known as drones, are increasingly used in modern society. Their versatility allows them to be used in a range of different industries, sectors, spheres and activities, including in the area of policing and criminal investigation. In policing, drones are primarily used for the control of state borders, public events and traffic, while their use in criminal investigation is related all from assisting crime scene investigation to tracking suspects or criminal gangs. The most controversial issue pertaining to the use of drones for law enforcement (LE) tasks and purposes is related to privacy protection. Drones are extremely useful and effective in obtaining data, which raises strong concerns with respect to the potential abuse or excessive intrusion into individuals’ privacy by the state. In the future, these issues will have to be addressed. Furthermore, a number of other issues also deserve an in-depth consideration by academics and criminal practitioners. These mostly refer to the way in which drones will be used for the commissioning of old and new crimes, and to the potential impacts on the forensically themed investigations of drones and their controllers.
Currently, discussions and solutions proposed to address such controversies are still at the level of individual countries, although (at least at the EU level) it is possible to observe the tendency to regulate these issues in the scope of international organisations. Slovenia is faced with a traditional problem, since the development of the legal basis is lagging behind the fast technological development. Criminal investigation professionals are aware of drones’ versatility, however, the legislator has not yet granted the necessary powers to the Slovene Police for the use of such tools.
The paper describes some current use and potential future employability of drones in LE and certain issues that LE practitioners (may yet) encounter
Keywords
Drones; Unmanned Aircrafts; crime scene investigation; surveillance
Hrčak ID:
182417
URI
Publication date:
12.12.2016.
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