Jurisdictions all over the country have put in place social-distancing orders, a normally unthinkable mandate that most citizens stay home, in order to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. But when it comes to enforcement of such orders, that's a much more complicated question.

Cities and towns have, in some cases, arrested citizens for violating their social distancing orders, per CNN, including a Florida pastor who loudly resisted orders to not hold church services. An Ohio man was arrested after posting a video to YouTube in which he both filmed numerous others outside during a stay-at-home order and celebrated defying the orders.

There have also been some outrages, such as a Colorado man who was handcuffed after police saw him playing catch in a park with his six-year-old daughter. The police later apologized to the man, who is himself a former police officer. Police departments have also had to weigh the safety of their own officers against doing such aggressive enforcement.

More recently, city governments and police departments have gotten creative with enforcing the orders. Per New York magazine, one mayor in New Jersey has deployed drones, to get residents to go back home.

“Some may notice drones monitoring your neighborhoods," Mayor Chris Bollwage of Elizabeth, N.J., said this week, per the magazine. "These drones are going to alert people to move away from each other if they are congregating. This is not a joke. It is extremely serious.”

The drones will broadcast a message-in the mayor's own voice telling them to go home. And the warnings will be followed by summonses and fines of up to $1,000. While the drones can film or photograph people violating the orders, drone technology, alas, does not yet permit the drones to deliver the summonses or collect the fines themselves.

A similar drone message is going out to Volusia County, Fla., with the sheriff's office flying drones which broadcast a message of "please adhere to social distancing guidelines."

The drones had previously been used in China, Spain and France, in the early days of the pandemic, and while a similar drone appeared in New York earlier this week with a recorded message, that object was not the work of any official government or law enforcement agency. The FAA is investigating, per The Hill, as the flying of drones is almost completely illegal in New York City.

Other firms, especially in the U.K., are using thermal imaging technology to enforce social distancing measures.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. 

Image: Reuters.