December 2 2015, 12:14 a.m.
The tools that governments could use to contain public demonstrations by remote control — firing tear gas from drones, for example — are advancing at a troubling and unregulated rate, says a new report from researchers in the U.K.
These technologies are either fully automatic or semi-automatic, according to the report, and can be used at a distance from the target.
The report, titled "Tear Gassing By Remote Control," was commissioned by the Remote Control Project, a branch of the Oxford Research Group, a think tank partly focused on modern warfare and its long-term consequences.
Its publication comes as almost 200 member states are meeting in the Hague in the Netherlands at the annual Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Conventions to discuss the progression of chemical warfare worldwide.
The report includes detailed profiles of technology like a German company's automatic tear gas machine triggered by a potential robbery, a U.S.-developed machine that releases gas into prisons to herd prisoners, a Chinese automatic grenade launcher, a U.S.-made "tactical robot" advertised as being ideal for "covert surveillance, security, SWAT, tactical response, and law enforcement," and a Chinese tear gas projectile launcher.
Crowley warned that the unchecked progression of unmanned riot suppression technology could lead to abuse by non-state actors including terrorist groups, inappropriate use in warfare or abuse by law enforcement agents, the potential for large-scale human rights abuses, and the proliferation of autonomous weapons systems.
Top photo: Non-lethal tube-launched munitions systems.