Public Drone Perception

Abstract

The use and popularity of unmanned arial vehicles (drones) has split over from the military domain into the civilian space in the past two decades. Its utility has been recognised not only by law enforcement agencies and the security industry at large, but also by private enterprises, leading the proliferation of drone integration in a variety of sectors. However, despite widespread recognition, concerns remain in the public domain over drone deployment. This study, funded by the TSB Technology Strategy Board (Funder Project Reference: 83074), aims to uncover the public's perception of drone use for emergency service response in a civilian context, whilst capturing how exposure to drone operations may influence and alter perception. To do this, two structured surveys were conducted pre- and post-exposure of drone flights, above a 500 m radius from a flight facility in Isleworth, UK (total population of 2363). The results of the study shed light on some statistically important indicators that influence drone perception both pre- and post-treatment; namely, technology acceptance and privacy perception. Those less concerned about privacy who already share personal information with public and private actors perceived drones positively for emergency response. Additionally, open-mindedness about new technology positively impacted public perception of drones. The post-treatment group had an additional three statistically significant predictors: age category, education level, and drone exposure. It was also found that security perception was not statistically significant. These new and novel findings in the field would require further testing to validate the predictors in other areas, in order to facilitate drone integration into civilian spaces.