Can a drone bust you for speeding?

Despite all the buzz surrounding recent polls and research, don't expect drones to be issuing you a speeding ticket any time soon.

Last year, President Obama signed legislation requiring the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to draw up regulations for the licensing and testing of commercial drones by 2015.

As of October, the FAA had received more than 80 applications from entities seeking to use drones, including law enforcement agencies.

But it's important to scale back your perceptions of law enforcement drones. These aren't the kind of aircraft that fly missions over Afghanistan for hours on end. These resemble toys equipped with a camera, and they can stay aloft for no more than an hour or so.

These drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles or unmanned aircraft systems, as law enforcement prefers to call them, are already beginning to help officers investigate crime scenes, for instance, by taking aerial photos of major auto accidents.

Airborne or 'in a box in the back of a van'

In Grand Junction, Colo., the Mesa County Sheriff's Office has been using drones for about four years. One is a small helicopter, which can stay airborne for about 15 minutes; the other is a fixed-wing aircraft, which can remain aloft for about an hour, says Ben Miller, the program's director.

They're deployed about twice a month. The fixed-wing aircraft has been used for search-and-rescue missions, while the helicopter has been used to take aerial photos at crime and accident scenes. "Otherwise they live in a box in the back of a van," Miller says.

The University of North Dakota and the Grand Forks Sheriff's Department launched a research project on drone usage in 2010, says Alan Frazier, an assistant professor with the university and part-time sheriff's deputy who previously worked as a law enforcement officer in California, including running air support in the Glendale Police Department.

In its test phase, the drones have been used to look for a drowning victim washed away in floodwaters and to take fatal traffic accident photos, Frazier says. That bird's-eye view helps law enforcement officers determine what occurred by photographing things such as the debris field and skid marks.

While the aircraft are used to help investigate major accidents, they aren't deployed for every fender bender. "It wouldn't be a fiscally responsible way of using this resource," he says. Drones cost between $25,000 and $175,000, which is still a fraction of the $1.8 million to $2 million cost for a police helicopter.

In Mesa County, operating the drones costs about $25 an hour, compared with the $600 to $1,500 it would cost to operate a full-size helicopter, Miller says.

Privacy advocates, consumers wary of drone data collection

But law enforcement's use of drones has created privacy concerns with organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which fear the drones can be used for unauthorized surveillance, and worries about how the data they collect will be used and retained.