I do love the very imaginative scenarios posted to this thread. Drones and chasing dangerous suspects! Drones gathering evidence and filming the crime scene! These are great. In reality, the police are always going to favor enforcing things with high revenue/effort ratios, which don't put their own skins at risk. Essentially, milking non-violent people who can be fined for something and are likely to pay the fine, while ignoring violent people and thieves. If someone was getting robbed in front of me and I was standing there filming it, cops would probably ignore the robbery and go after me for "interfering with an investigation" or something.
I wouldn't say looking forward to it, more, anticipating it and the vast social change that it will bring.
Corrupt police officers are allowed to operate with impunity because there's no pressure from above to stop them, and the pressure that came from below has been crushed by the technological advancements that allow police to coordinate with radios and computers for searches.
It will be interesting to see what happens when that sort of pressure comes back in the form of drones. I figure you'll start to see sentences for police brutality increase after a few cops who are let free get droned a few feet from a courthouse by the vengeful family of the victim.
There might just be enough pressure from above to put these corrupt cops in jail, if only for their own personal safety because it might just stop being safe on the streets for them.
unfortunately, completely agree.. here in the US West Coast in a high crime urban area.. seemingly half the adult population are involved in stupid, confrontational, selfish and haphazardly illegal actions every day of the year. Then a uniformed duo rolls up, no one will talk to them. The boundary line between "thats my important-thing-I-want" and "where is my sh*" is impossible to determine between argumentative and low-language skill adults.. meaning your car, bike or phone (as noted above). Secondly, small-time people discover that they can call law enforcement on people they don't like, and law enforcement figures this out due to years of experience and responds with no-responding.
Meanwhile, a legal, certified and identifiable citizen with stable contact info, decide to have a wood fire. The politically conscious local city council has decided that due to air quality, it costs FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS for a ticket for a wood fire. Tickets cost pennies to issue.. bingo - revenue source. Repeat as desired.. there is a lot of desire.
More than half of cities in this part of the country went bankrupt due to drastically reduced local sales tax. Their primary financial liabilities are uniformed services, mainly police and fire.. If the uniforms can make their own money, saves some ugly confrontations from the union at election time! more anecdotes possible..
There is one hundred percent chance that the outcome described above is happening with new drone remote services IMHO
When the criminals steal your car/bike/phone they will do nothing.