Most often, drones are in the news because of their military application. We hear about drone strikes targeting terrorist cells in Iraq, or sending back surveillance images of a dangerous tribal area in Afghanistan.

But drones are increasingly being used closer to home - much closer to home, in fact. Some public safety offices around the country are either already using or considering using drones to help prevent and fight crime.

While law enforcement and public safety officers are generally enthusiastic about how the new technology can help them do their jobs, many people outside the public safety industry have worries about how drones may be misused.

Given how new demilitarized drone technology is, it’s not surprising that people are uncomfortable with it. As in other parts of the technology world, individual privacy must be protected in an effective manner.

At the same time, however, the benefits drones can offer public safety organizations are very real. So what are these potential benefits, and how can they be balanced with concerns over privacy?

Drones can provide critical information for law enforcement and other public safety professionals.

For police officers who must go into tense, volatile situations - hostage situations, shoot-outs, etc. - a drone that can provide live, aerial video of the crime location can save lives.

In this way, drones become part of the agency’s situational awareness strategy, which is a vital element of protecting the lives of both officers and private citizens.

For instance, a drone could help monitor the surrounding area, letting police officers know if there are additional victims or criminals they need to be prepared for. A drone could surveil areas where escaped convicts or missing persons are thought to be (provided that area is public).

Fire departments can use drones for situational awareness in large-scale incidents, decreasing the chance that firefighters will be put in situations of unnecessary risk.

Out West, some fire departments are looking into ways that drones can help fight wildfires. There’s potential that these unmanned aircraft could pick up and dump water where it’s needed, again saving firefighters from having to go into highly dangerous areas.

Drones in the hands of trained professionals are different from recreational drones.

You’ve probably heard the horror stories of private citizens flying drones close to airports and manned aircraft - in fact, a 2015 report found that there were more than 240 near-collisions between drones and manned aircraft, including 28 occurrences in which pilots actually had to veer away to avoid hitting the drones.

These drones were operated by people - mainly private citizens - who either were unaware or careless of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) rules regulating drones, which include not flying within 5 miles of an airport or above 400 feet.

Public safety agencies that use drones, on the other hand, follow strict protocols and guidelines for their usage, just as they do when it comes to police warrants or EMS transport. Many come direct from the FAA, while others are determined by the agency itself or the local or state government that the agency is a part of.

Regardless of who is setting the rules, it’s a fair bet that no law enforcement agency is going to hover a drone outside a random person’s window to take pictures of them having breakfast, or getting home from work. Not only would there be no legal justification, but the outrage from the public would be impossible to avoid.

Drones are still in the early stages of adoption by public safety agencies, and there’s a lot that still has to be figured out.

According to the NPR station KQED, a little more than 100 public safety agencies have been certified to fly unmanned aircraft by the FAA, as of August 2015. That may sound like a lot, but it’s just a tiny fraction of agencies in the U.S.

Because drone usage by public safety is in such an early stage, the government is still in the process of working out how best to regulate them. The American Civil Liberties Union is urging rules that would require local elected bodies to approve the use of drones, as well as restrict their surveillance activities in public areas.

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