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Law enforcement entities have specific jurisdictions and specific laws with which they must comply. As our laws change to reflect culture and technology along with the struggle among federal, state, and local governments for supremacy (for example, is medical cannabis legal?), what once seemed to be out of the realm of possibility, may become part of your workday. If nothing else, these articles may be a heads up from one profession to another where latent public perception may become important.

Some articles age off but the link and article name and date remain correct in case you want to track it down at the library.

Bloomberg Technology, Giles Turner, February 27, 2017 online:
Facebook to launch solar-powered drone(s) to bring the Internet to the world!.
Does this mean there is no place to hide?
(I can hear you say there already is no place to hide)

Police Can See Through Walls
USA Today 1 20 2015 via the Arizona Republic.
Superman move over!
With handheld radar units police are no longer blind as bats but can see through walls!
This may be disturbing but I'm sure you can think of scenarios when this can interrupt stealth crime.
The units can detect breathing which means some kidnapped persons in an otherwise empty house might get freed.
The future is here now. Anonymity and hiding is so yesterday.

How Glendale plans to keep stdium safe for Super Bowl
Arizona Republic. 1 15 2015
The Super Bowl brings with it a threat level of very high order. But don't worry! The "A Team" is on it!
A coalition of veteran personnel are there to make sure nothing gets out of hand. Think Austin Powers. "Oh, behave!" Unplanned medical emergencies are covered!

Pleasanton, California Police Department uses Nextdoor
to promote communication among residents of a small slice of town and with the police.
Nextdoor.com requires the home and email addresses for access.

Plotting the Course by Howard Hardee
Chico News and Review January 9, 2014 page 8
World Magazine August 27, 2013 page 59
At only 77% of the staffing of police officers considered for good citizen protection, how would you feel to being upgraded to 83%? If the definition of politics is "who gets what and how much when?" did you originally imagine that included your safety? This is not a new issue. But if you think you see your police chief or sheriff filling a shift an officer normally would fill, it may actually be your police chief or sheriff.

Sea Drones Venture into Uncharted Waters By Aaron Kuriloff
Bloomberg Businessweek December 19, 2013 page 40
We noted seagoing drones before but this seems to indicate you might actually spot one and it might have unmanned shipping applications which means not only can Tom Hanks be located on Castaway but also Tom Hanks isn't aboard as in Captain Phillips.

"What Twitter's Made Of" by Paul Ford, Bloomberg Businessweek November 17, 2013
Even if you are not skilled at Twitter, your seemingly insignificant Tweet lives on and can go viral via an API, an application programming interface. How? The 140 characters you get to type are less than 10% of the Tweet content. "Where were you on the morning of (date)?" is best answered remembering all your Tweets. I know you get it.

Driven Data by Daniel James Devine
World Magazine August 27, 2013 page 59
It appears this officer has to manually scan a license plate to see if it matches an entry in a data base already available such as the DMV or hot list of stolen vehicles. I suppose one day all license plates will be scanned automatically as the officer drives along and an alert sent to dispatch and the officer of who needs a "routine" traffic stop.

World Magazine July 27, 2013 page 18:
Retired New Jersey State Trooper Scott Johnson was able to warn "No English" Russian speaker not to float down the swollen Delaware River by using Google Translate preventing them from being added to the list of recent river deaths. (Type in to the search bar "Google Translate) or click here

Honeybees trained in Croatia to find land mines
Bloomberg Businessweek, May 19, 2013
If honeybees can be sensitized to associate food with TNT, they will gravitate to otherwise undetectable landmines when hungry. While not foolproof, they are an inexpensive option in ridding the world of unexploded landmines that would otherwise cause death or dismemberment to humans. Is TNT honey safe to eat, an additional bonus? Can we harness other natural inclinations to achieve other beneficial objectives?

The Rise of Big Data: How It's Changing the Way We Think About the World
The Economist: May/June 2013
(Unfortunately, you must subscribe to read the full 13 page article)
If data we now have were divided up with a unique portion given to each and every person on earth, each would have 320 times what was stored in the Library in Alexander in Egypt, about 320 x 1200 Exabytes!
Sampling a small number of persons asking specific unbiased questions has been used to determine what the population of persons in general agree with + or - a %age.
Collecting big data without filtering it or respecting privacy allows questions to be asked of the data which can lead to surprising and beneficial conclusions heretofore unimagined. "We can learn from a large body of information things that we could not comprehend when we used only smaller amounts." (page 32)

Robodiptera
Miniature flying robots The Economist: May 4th, 2013
An insect-like robot, no bigger than a fly, takes to the air
Tiny flying robots, tethered to a power source until tiny batteries are included, are agile piezoelectric constructions which may have a big future.

Wearing a Badge, and a Video Camera
The New York Times, April 6, 2013
This link stands in for an Arizona Republic, May 8, 2013 article on page A4 titled Tiny cams on police officers make impact (which requires a subscription to read).
"Officers and citizens tend to treat each other better if they know they're being recorded studies have shown."
"Officers realized that dash cams usually supported what officers said was going on. And they vindicated them sometimes, when people would make false allegations about misconduct or discourtesy. So there was a sea change in opinion from line officers in acceptance of those cameras."

Drone Home
A sane summary of the introduction of drones to the heartland of America with a mention of "mission creep" and perceptions of the anonymous watchers and of the suspecting watched. Time Magazine: February 11th, 2013

Robots and psychology: Mapping the uncanny valley
Why androids are scary The Economist: July 21st, 2012
There seems to be something about finding emotion in a place where it is not expected that upsets people.
Humans, by contrast, are expected to have feelings—and when such feelings are not found, the effect is equally frightening.

Psychology: 'Snot fair! Exactly when is something perceived as not fair? The Economist: July 21st, 2012
"What triggers willingness to punish an offender, even at a cost to the punisher—have not been well established."
"...this result suggests that what really gets people’s goat is not so much having money taken, but having it taken in a way that makes the taker better off than the victim."

Government surveillance: Little peepers everywhere
America’s laws governing digital and mobile surveillance are an unholy mess The Economist: July 21st, 2012
Where is the balance between the need of safety for citizens and their reasonable privacy?
Law enforcement's attempt to "catch the bad guys" meets the Constitution in a changing world.

106 agencies get permits to fly drones over U.S. The Washington Times: July 20th, 2012
How will citizens react when they encounter a drone?
It appears we will find out soon!
This link has disappeared. After searching for a new link, this one seems to be the most rational. (YouTube of a Fox News story February 24, 2013)