There's an eerily prescient sequence in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report — the director worked with scientists and futurists to make the sci-fi flick more plausible than most — in which our hero, Tom Cruise, must hide from spider-like police drones set loose in a housing project high-rise to find him.
The comical part was the arguing couple, yelling and pointing at each other, only to go quiet and slack when the spider crept up to flash their retinas. They picked right back up where they left off the moment the drone was gone.
The most fascinating part of the sequence was how acclimated the project residents were to having their retinas scanned without so much as a real cop present, much less a cop with an actual warrant. The spider drones crawled around the building, and people stopped whatever they were doing just long enough to get ID'd by robots.
That's just a fictional future. Today, police already use flying drones to get to the scene of the crime faster than flesh-and-blood ever could — and to keep an eye on the suspects, too.
But police aren't the only ones.
There's a freelance drone video making the rounds this week, gone viral because some clever prankster made it look like official police footage. Real as it looks, don't be taken in:
Police Are Now Using Drones to Track Down Retail Theft Suspects Who Snatch Items and Run From Stores.🚁🏃🏽♀️📹 pic.twitter.com/sX7A8DKoI8
— Raphouse TV (RHTV) (@raphousetv7) September 6, 2026
No matter what the overlay says, that was not a Concord, Calif., police drone. It's unknown whether the women were actually shoplifting or just getting harassed by remote control.
There's a Community Note on another version of the video — I already rated it as Helpful and encourage you to do the same — explaining that it "originates from FPV pilot gee_fpv, not police. Raphouse TV added overlays claiming police use for theft."
You can watch the unaltered video here, and shame on everyone reposting it as genuine without checking into it first.
But you could certainly be excused for believing it was real, particularly since Concord PD went all-in on drones earlier this year. In March, the department "launched its new Real Time Intelligence Center (RTIC), a technology‑driven hub designed to give officers immediate access to critical information during unfolding incidents." In addition, "Three drone docks positioned around the city allow rapid aerial response and real‑time video feeds to the RTIC," along with Flock Safety, which provides "automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology used to identify suspect vehicles and support investigations."
In July, Concord and San Francisco police scored a huge drone-enhanced bust:
Police arrested five suspected gang members following a brazen smash-and-grab robbery at an East Bay mall that netted more than $100,000 in jewelry, authorities said.
The takedown resulted from a coordinated effort between the San Francisco and Concord police departments, utilizing drones and new real-time crime centers to track the suspects across the Bay Area.
So on the one hand, we have civilians and police alike using drones to harass and stalk innocent people. On the other, smash-and-grab jewelry thieves experiencing some well-earned instant karma.
Is the instant karma worth the price of two innocent women becoming "internet famous" in an altered video?
Drones and security cameras are cheap and increasingly effective. Like it or not, they're here to stay. But that doesn't mean we have to acquiesce like the fighting couple in Minority Report.
Be more like this guy:
🚨 77-year-old Carl Gunn is staging a one-man protest in St. Petersburg, Florida (Coquina Key neighborhood).
— ChaosLensX (@ChaosLensX) July 29, 2026
He’s sitting in a camping chair on a public sidewalk, holding up a 12-foot pool skimmer with a handwritten sign that reads “DOWN WITH FLOCK CAMERAS.”
The pole is… pic.twitter.com/nnOOPGZapJ
#Resist.
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