By Cameron Maldonado-Olea
Drone security bring would be beneficial for the safety of people on campus.
If ELAC implemented drones on campus, it would help students and faculty.
Patrick Hauser, Administration of Justice professor, said he supports,“any tool that might be wisely, legally and reasonably used by law enforcement that serves to protect the public while at the same time enhancing officer safety…as long as the constitution protections for citizens are not compromised.”
The Department of Education said, “Drones can be beneficial for Protection, Prevention, and mitigation. They serve the benefit of response and recovery. Contributing in inspecting building conditioning and gathering intel during lockdowns.”
This increases surveillance abilities on campus.
“The presence of ambiguously dubbed security drones is an invasion of privacy on campus because whose security is being protected?” Michael Sigman, philosophy professor said.
The Department of Education said the presence of drones can create fear and anxiety among the student body and lead to disruption of school activities
Hauser said the use of drones that adheres to 4th Amendment protections, “poses no threat to the privacy of either students or faculty members.”
Drones can identify threats from a bird’s eye view, which is key on an open campus such as ELAC.
An open campus is a campus that is physically accessible to anyone, even without school identification.
“We are not a police state…What if the FBI or CIA wants to monitor innocent individuals for their ‘known associates’ or track their comings and goings,” Sigman said.
Hauser said, “Like any other tool used within law enforcement, though, there is always the potential for misuse; because of this the use of drones or any other new technology in law enforcement operations must be subject to quality training, frequent oversight, and necessary remediation.”
Drones have the capability to moniter fixed camera blindpots on campus.
A drone would also allow law enforcemnt to watch over more night students.
Rather than each night student having to call a police escort to their vehicle or skipping the police escort all together, each night student could feel and be safer.
Drones can help with different types of safety, such as natural disaster in an earthquake-prone state.
Drones can be deployed post natural disasters to aid search and rescue missions.
Drones can be an eye in the sky that looks at for us, not just over us.