We have heard so much speculation about a future in which drones will own the skies that we’ve barely noticed that for many people, the drone future has already arrived. Drones are ubiquitous in war zones, routine in disaster response, and in some American towns they quietly deliver burritos, coffee, vaccines, and insulin. Police use them far more often than people—and critically, more than criminals—realize. They are even an instrument of American “soft power” in competition with China.
In recent months I have seen video, taken from a real police operation, of cops catching car thieves with drones—down to filming the crooks switching the license plates. I stood under a drone hovering 400 feet in the air above me and watched it release a smaller droid, which dropped to the ground to make a delivery in a space the size of a large pizza box.
