The sci-fi and Western mashup did not begin with the 2011 “Cowboys & Aliens” movie starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford.  Henry Cribbs elaborates on the  “weird-Western” genre in his blog (i.e., think Wild Wild West, for example, or some  Quantum Leap and Star Trek episodes).

What is really interesting is when life imitates art.  Recently, a weird-Western event came to life when a sheriff department called in a border patrol Predator B drone to help take down some alleged cattle rustlers in North Dakota (see story in the LA Times).

It is inevitable that such events will  escalate the spirited U.S. privacy vs. surveillance discussion.  This discussion first began, possibly, when wire tapping followed the invention of the telephone, and has continued ever since, such as the California student that had to return the secret FBI tracking device he discovered on his car (see story in Wired). 

The  Washington Post predicts that technologies and techniques “honed for use on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan” will  migrate into American law enforcement agencies (see story in the Washington Post).  Issues will result when the relatively slower legislative process is faced with a flood of technologies developed in the post 9/11 defense economy.

In the meantime, privacy advocates may find good news from Bill Macki, head of the Grand Forks’ police SWAT team, that said, “We don’t use [drones] on every call out. If we have something in town like an apartment complex, we don’t call them.”