Patrone Police Drone

Korea-based designer Jin-jung Young offers a glimpse at the future of surveillance with this latest concept. Called the Patrone Police Drone, the future of law enforcement is, according to him, up above — and care of Audi. It aims to equip police officers with the advantage of virtual visibility via drone technology. And they don’t even need to be on the road; they can just chill at the department and let this bad boy do all the surveillance work.

Thankfully, this is just a mere concept for now, as the notion of an all-seeing drone observing from high above seems a little bit Black Mirror-ish, to be honest. Potential security violations aside, this design features a four-rotor system and a jet propulsion for flying about town to investigate emergencies or hover over urban misdemeanors then report back to the station.

The body is supposedly more stable than rival drones. There’s also an onboard camera that’ll enable officers to control the thing via virtual reality remotely. It allows them to observe communities without needing to go all the way there for everyday patrol work. Pretty neat.

It’s hard to imagine any regular civilian would be okay with this idea, of course, although you’d have to wonder whether we already have the technology to make this into a reality. If the latter point of is true, then that’s the bigger fish we need to fry — are we really making police patrolling efficient, or are we just setting a precedent on how little we value privacy? You tell us.