Drones in Surveillance Missions: Case Study of the Gendarmerie Forces of the Iberian Countries

Abstract

The objective of this work is to support the continuous development and modernization of the Gendarmerie Forces, analyzing the use of Drones in the police activities of the Portuguese and Spanish Gendarmerie forces, examining the extent to which the implementation and expansion of these resources represent an advantage for the police service and operations of the Gendarmerie. Due to the great changes taking place in the world, it is crucial to rethink state security. The convergence of internal and external threats, together with the increase in the feeling of insecurity on a global scale, are emerging factors that require different strategies of the security forces, especially with regard to the support tools used. Thus, there was a need to analyze the legal panorama of the Drones used in police, military and customs missions, verifying their classification as state aircraft, verifying the current doctrine (civil, military and police), taking into account the analysis of these scenarios. To this end, a methodology based on the inductive method was adopted, which made it possible to generalize the data collected through the analysis of data on the Spanish Gendarmerie force, appreciating their characteristics and use, with the aim of comparing the modus operandi with the Portuguese Gendarmerie force.