The Next Frontier of Police Surveillance Is Drones

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. A company that makes stun guns and body cameras is teaming up with a company that makes drones to sell drones to police departments, and that might not even be the most worrisome part. The line of drones from Axon and DJI is called the Axon Air, and the devices will be linked to Axon's cloud-based database for law enforcement, Evidence.com, And it could open a vast new frontier for police surveillance. By working with a company that is already familiar with contracting with police departments, the Chinese-owned DJI--the world's biggest consumer drone manufacturer--could widen up a new, growing customer base: cops. Axon Air, which was announced Tuesday by Axon, is marketed as a way to help law enforcement with search-and-rescue operations, crowd monitoring, traffic-accident reconstruction, and evidence collection.