Abstract: This article is an examination of what law enforcement might look like in space, either in an orbital colony, a spaceship, or a surface colony, such as on the Moon or Mars. For more on my non-sworn law enforcement experience, click here and here. This article will limit itself to what is technologically current or possible in the near future. The findings of this article are that law enforcement is going to be very different from what it currently is on Earth, due to the different environments (shipboard/space station vs. colony on the Moon or Mars, as well as different gravity fields) and due to the nature of the people there, at least at the beginning.
Law enforcement in space will be very different. Everything that law enforcement officers on Earth currently take for granted – instant communications through radios or mobile data terminals (laptop-sized computers mounted in patrol vehicles), patrol vehicles, breathing and moving around without an astronaut suit, the one-gravity field that we’re all used to, and the most important part – rapid backup (at least in an urban environment) – all of this will be gone. Backup might take a long time to arrive, or might not arrive at all. Officers responding to a situation will be on their own.
Law Enforcement on a Spaceship or Space Station
Officers will need to be trained and equipped for the unique environment that they are operating in. For example, shipboard law enforcement officers will have to deal with periods of acceleration and periods with no acceleration, which means zero gravity. A space station or colony will be like a ship in the sense that it is an artificial environment in space, but it is meant to stay in one place. Gravity might be provided by slowly spinning the space station, but it is unlikely to have the same gravity as Earth. An officer who is used to a low-gravity or zero-gravity environment might have an advantage over a suspect recently arrived from Earth; on the other hand, the suspect will still have muscles and skeletal strength from living in Earth’s gravity field. An officer who has been in a low-gravity or zero-gravity environment for a long time will suffer from bone or muscle deterioration[1], which would put the officer at a disadvantage if the officer has to fight or subdue a suspect hand to hand. However, this would be less of a problem if both the officer and the suspect had been living in the same gravity field for a long time.
If travel between Earth and space stations or colonies becomes as routine for civilians as air travel is now, then it may be possible to use current laws governing passenger conduct on board airliners as a structure to provide laws governing passengers on liners traveling between Earth and space destinations. Various international protocols govern the security of civilian air travel, including the security of airports. There is no international law enforcement agency charged with enforcing laws governing passenger conduct and airport security; the enforcement of these protocols is the job of national law enforcement agencies.[2] However, air travel is a short-term activity; under normal circumstances, a passenger may spend a few hours both at the departure and arrival airport, and a few to several hours on the aircraft. For longer voyages, such as between Earth and another planet, the circumstances will be different. Laws will have to evolve accordingly.
The legal basis for law enforcement on board commercial ships (passenger and cargo) provide another basis for law enforcement on board spaceships or space stations. Under such laws, the master of an aircraft or ship may use force, or enlist other crew members, to use force to subdue a suspect who is endangering personnel on board.[3] There is also the Code of Conduct for the International Space Station. The commander of the International Space Station crew is empowered to enforce this Code of Conduct. This Code of Conduct was established by agreement between the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, and the member states of the European Space Agency.[4] This code governs the activities of individuals on board the International Space Station. While there are no law enforcement officers of any nation on board the International Space Station, the Code of Conduct provides a model code that could be applied to commercial space stations or spaceships, if a sufficient majority of nations can agree on what that code should encompass. Such a code might then be enforced by law enforcement officers or crew members on board space stations or spaceships, just as they are enforced today on aircraft or ships.
Law Enforcement Policy and Procedure
The culture of the country that creates a colony or launches a space station or space ship will make a large difference in what’s tolerated and what’s not, and how much role government and law enforcement will have. Policy and procedure will also depend greatly on how large a colony is and whether it is a military or research base, or one open to general civilian immigration and settlement. In light of the costs of setting up a colony, especially a large colony, multiple countries might pool their efforts and settle a colony using population, leaders, and law enforcement officers from each country. In such a case, the countries would have to be closely allied and culturally related already, so that the personnel (civilian, law enforcement, or military) can work together. For example, a colony jointly planned by Canada and the United States is likely to work much better than a colony jointly planned by China and the United States.[5]
No matter what the basis of the starting culture is for a colony, the colony will evolve. We’ve already seen this on Earth. The United States started as a colony of the United Kingdom, but soon won independence and went its own way. No one would deny that the United States and the United Kingdom are related, but different. This will become even more pronounced on a colony that is off Earth, whether it is relatively close by (the Moon) or farther away, such as Mars or the Asteroid Belt. After all, traveling between Earth and other worlds will be difficult and take a lot of time[6]. There will be no more instant phone or radio communications except at close ranges. The different and evolving needs and wants of colonists might well lead to changing or abolishing the laws that came along from Earth[7]. When the laws change, law enforcement officers will have to change what they do and how they do it, just as they do when laws change on Earth.
Law enforcement is about people. Technology may be used to commit crimes, but it is people who commit crimes. As it was put in Federalist #51: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”[8] Colonies, whether orbital or surface, are likely in the beginning to be picked military or scientific personnel, and ruled under the laws of the country that creates the colony. The rigorous crew selection process will filter out those with criminal records, the mentally ill, alcoholics, and drug addicts – those who are more likely to commit crimes. In addition, prospective crew members are filtered out if they might not function well in the confined environment of a space station or colony. “From my perspective, the much more difficult skill for an astronaut candidate was being psychologically adept for space travel,” warned Terry Virts, who served as commander of the International Space Station from 2014-2015[9].
All of these measures will greatly reduce the likelihood of crime. However, crime is still possible because of other motives or problems. Examples include tempers flaring because people are tired or having a disagreement, or because people who grew up with the “fleecy skies and cool green hills of Earth”[10] become unstable from too much time in a colony or a spaceship, even though they had been psychologically screened before leaving Earth. It is also possible that a colony’s personnel might split into factions over some issue.[11] This might be more likely in a scientific colony or a general settlement colony, as opposed to a military colony with strict hierarchy and discipline.
In the case of a spaceship for short ranges, such as a flight from Earth to a space station, it would be prohibitive to do a full background check on every passenger. However, it would be possible for governments or commercial spacelines to maintain “no-fly” lists of people who have caused trouble or might cause trouble in the future, just as airlines do now.[12]
In addition, people might become unstable or violent if they are exposed to toxins from outgassing or a poorly functioning life support system.[13] This is not a problem for short-range space ships, but may well be a problem for colonies or space stations. Cosmic ray bombardment causes brain damage and may accelerate Alzheimer’s disease.[14] This is more of a problem on space ships or space stations rather than colonies, because colonies can be built underground; the surface dirt and crumbled rock (known as regolith) will stop the cosmic rays. The possibility of crime caused by brain damage or toxic exposure can be mitigated by frequent medical examinations of colonists, including the law enforcement officers, and also by going to great lengths to ensure that the shipboard or colony environmental systems are in top shape. A healthy diet, with lots of green vegetables and supplements of Vitamin A and Vitamin E, will also help. [15]
Sooner or later, children will be born on these colonies, especially colonies designed for large numbers of civilians such as the orbiting colonies first proposed by Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill in 1974,[16] and more recently advocated by Jeff Bezos.[17] The children won’t be picked for stability and clean records; they’ll grow up there. Some of them might not turn out well, just like children on Earth. In other words, law enforcement on a scientific or military colony won’t be like Saturday night in a big city on Earth. However, on a colony with large numbers of civilians, it might be.
A colony or a space station will have to decide what to do with suspects. In the case of a space station or space ship orbiting Earth, the solution is easy: return the suspect to Earth, where the suspect will be dealt with by his own government. For a colony on the Moon or Mars or the Asteroid Belt, returning a suspect to Earth would be prohibitively expensive. The outcome will depend on the founding culture and government of that colony, and to what degree the colony has evolved away from its founding government, even without secession. A small, struggling colony might not have the room or the resources for long-term incarceration. This might make the death penalty more attractive, especially for crimes endangering colonial personnel. On the other hand, if it can be proved that the suspect’s behavior was caused by exposure to cosmic rays or toxic chemicals, it might be possible to confine the suspect until sanity can be restored by medical treatment. Lesser punishments might include ostracization by other colonists, loss of privileges, or fines.[18]
Lastly, let’s consider the junction between law enforcement and military. The human future in space will not always be peaceful.[19] Given the difficulty of calling for or getting reinforcements in time of trouble, as well as the small size and small industrial capacity of a new colony, a colony’s police force might also become its de facto military. There is some similarity between law enforcement and military forces: uniforms, military ranks, a strict hierarchy, use of weapons, 24-7 operations, and a prepared outlook[20]. Furthermore, a colony’s police force, acting in a military capacity, might need the backing of the colony’s population at large. In other words, instead of the current nation-state model of professional military forces (conscript, volunteer, or a combination of both), we might see a return to the militia system as it was once practiced in the United States (and still provided for under U.S. federal law[21]), or as it is currently practiced in Switzerland[22] and the Scandinavian countries[23]. There are some echoes of this in current U.S. law, which provides for the deputization of civilians to enforce laws in some cases.[24] This might become especially important if a colony declares itself independent of whichever government set it up.[25]
Law Enforcement Technology in Space
Use of force, especially deadly force, will be a problem. Using a gun within a confined spaceship or space station might result in the bullet ricocheting, posing a risk to the officers or others. A bullet might also cause a hull breach, in which the atmosphere would leak into space. A compartmented spaceship or space station would be able to seal off the affected compartment, but this is still something to avoid. This might also be a problem in a colony, whether underground or a dome colony on the surface. Furthermore, in a zero-gravity environment, the recoil of a gun would propel the officer firing it backwards; at least this would not be a problem for officers in a colony, which will have a gravity field, although this will be less than that of Earth[26]. Officers might have to use less lethal projectile weapons such as Arwen[27] or bean bag shotguns[28]. These would still have the problem of recoil in a zero-gravity environment, but they might be less likely to breach the hull of a space station or spaceship. Pepper spray or tear gas are options that do not have the large recoil of a projectile weapon, though there would be some small pushback in a zero-gravity environment, because the compressed air spray system would act as a small thruster on the officer wielding it. Unfortunately, pepper spray or tear gas used against a suspect would be sucked in to the life-support system of the space station or spaceship or colony, which would affect others. In any case, pepper spray or tear gas would not stop a suspect wearing a spacesuit. The Area Denial System, which uses microwave radiation to produce a burning sensation on human skin, might be another option for law enforcement officers in space. However, it is designed for crowd control rather use against individual suspects, and it is not a hand-sized weapon.[29] Furthermore, it might not affect individuals wearing a spacesuit. The Area Denial System might be best used for a large colony in which crowds are possible. Tasers are another option, but these have limited range, and they will not be effective against a suspect wearing a spacesuit.[30] Other devices for entangling and restraining might prove useful, but these devices have not been used enough for any definitive consensus on their usefulness.[31] More emphasis on de-escalation might help,[32] but if de-escalation worked all the time, there would be no need for law enforcement at all – a concept lost upon those who clamor for #DefundThePolice.
Technical surveillance and the size of the colony will do a lot to deter crime. Technology like CCTV, as well as monitoring of the colonists’ communications, will very likely become part of any space station, spaceship, or colony. While there is a lot of concern about privacy here on Earth[33], those who are on board a space station, spaceship, or colony might be comfortable with living in a proverbial fishbowl. (Ask the residents of the International Space Station about that – the total living space is the size of a large house, which sounds nice, but you can’t just take a walk or a vacation. Everyone will know your quirks and what you’re up to.[34]) Anyone who does anything annoying or criminal would be rapidly found out, especially in a colony with a small population.
While CCTV and communications monitoring will be easy, more specialized work such as forensic investigation may be difficult. Bodies and other evidence might have to be sent to Earth for analysis, or detectives and other specialists brought from Earth, at least until colonies are large enough to have their own police forces and their own forensic laboratories and personnel. This is similar to not expecting cruise liners or air liners to have on-board police and forensic laboratories. However, this solution would only be useful for space ships and colonies near Earth. It would be prohibitively expensive for space ships and colonies farther out. One major barrier to establishing forensic facilities on colonies, or just in space stations, is the cost of lifting cargo. Though launch cost is going down, at this time it costs roughly $1200 per pound to lift cargo into orbit via SpaceX’s Falcon 9.[35] This means that at least initially, colonies are unlikely to have forensic laboratories that can rival those available to law enforcement agencies on Earth.
Conclusion
Law enforcement in space is coming. It will happen bit by bit. New law enforcement agencies might be established, or current law enforcement agencies might have their mandates extended. Colonies, even those set up by the same government, will soon grow to have their own cultures; this will in large part be guided by distance from Earth and the unique conditions on each colony.[36] Culture matters, both on Earth and in space for law enforcement. Those countries that are first to establish a military and law enforcement presence in space are going to be the ones that dictate what space law and space law enforcement evolves into.
For further reading:
[1] Iddo Magen, “The Dangers of Zero Gravity,” Davidson Institute of Science Education, Weizmann Institute, Israel, February 27, 2017, accessed December 19, 2021. Vision problems have also cropped up in zero-gravity: Scott Kelly, Endurance (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017), 139-141.
[2] “Aviation Security: The Role of International Law,” Paul Stephen Dempsey, https://www.mcgill.ca/iasl/files/iasl/aspl_633-2015-dempsey_aviation_security.pdf, accessed May 29, 2022.
[3] Lee Seshagiri, “Spaceship Sheriffs and Cosmonaut Cops,” Dalhousie Law Journal, October 1, 2005, 492, https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1886&context=dlj, accessed May 29, 2022.
[4] Code of Conduct for International Space Station, https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/1214.403, accessed April 3, 2022.
[5] For much more on cultures and civilizations, see Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, (New York: Touchstone, 1996).
[6] Depending on how close Mars is to Earth, a radio signal might take from 4 to 24 minutes to go from Mars to Earth. Thomas Ormston, “Time Delay Between Mars and Earth,” European Space Agency, https://blogs.esa.int/mex/2012/08/05/time-delay-between-mars-and-earth/, accessed December 26, 2021.
[7] Albert A. Harrison, Spacefaring: The Human Dimension (Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press), 234-237.
[8] Alexander Hamilton or James Madison, “Federalist #51”, https://guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/text-51-60, accessed September 4, 2021.
[9] Terry Virts, How to Astronaut. (New York: Workman Publishing, 2020), 165.
[10] “The Green Hills of Earth,” The Green Hills of Earth/The Menace from Earth (Riverside, NJ: Baen Books, 2011)
[11]Charles Wohlforth and Amanda Hendrix, Beyond Earth: Our Path to a New Home in the Planets (New York: Pantheon Books, 2016), 191-93.
[12] Michael Bartiromo, “No-Fly Lists: Major Airlines Reveal How Many Passengers Are Banned From Their Flights,” Fox News, July 18, 2021, https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/no-fly-lists-major-airlines-how-many-passengers-banned, accessed May 30, 2022.
[13] Albert A. Harrison, Spacefaring: The Human Dimension (Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press), 124-128.
[14] Chris Impey, Beyond: Our Future In Space. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2015), 115.
[15] Albert A. Harrison, Spacefaring: The Human Dimension (Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press), 51.
[16] “O’Neill Cylinder Space Settlement,” National Space Society, https://space.nss.org/o-neill-cylinder-space-settlement/, accessed September 4, 2021.
[17] Alexandra Ma, “Jeff Bezos Wants Floating Colonies in Space With Weather Like Maui All Year Long—Here’s What He Thinks They’ll Look Like,” Business Insider, May 10, 2019, https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-proposes-floating-colonies-with-weather-as-good-as-maui-2019-5?op=1, accessed September 4, 2019.
[18] Albert A. Harrison, Spacefaring: The Human Dimension (Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press), 237.
[19] For example, see Joshua Carlson, Spacepower Ascendant: Space Development Theory and a New Space Strategy. Independently published, June 2020.
[20] Jay Fortenbery, “Police Militarization in a Democratic Society,” FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, June 13, 2018, accessed August 29, 2021.
[21] Militia: Composition and Classes, 10 USC 242, https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title10-section246&num=0&edition=prelim, accessed August 29, 2021.
[22] John McPhee, La Place de la Concorde Suisse. (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1994).
[23] Elisabeth Braw, “There Are More and More Threats that Militaries Can’t Stop. People’s Forces Can Help,” DefenseOne, March 15, 2018, https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/03/norway-peoples-force-preps-threats-military-cant-stop/146705/, accessed January 2, 2022.
[24] David B. Kopel, “The Posse Comitatus and the Office of the Sheriff: Armed Citizens Summoned to the Aid of Law Enforcement,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, pp. 802-805, https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7539&context=jclc, accessed May 29, 2022.
[25] Robert Heinlein’s Red Planet and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress are both about colonies seceding from governments on Earth. Both books feature the use of militia forces using tools and arms on hand to win their cause.
[26] Mars has 38% of Earth’s gravity; the Moon has 17% of Earth’s gravity. Kate Broome, “What is the Gravity on Mars vs Moon vs Earth,” December 12, 2017, https://sciencetrends.com/gravity-mars-vs-moon-vs-earth/, accessed December 19, 2021.
[27] Arwen Less Lethal, http://arwenlesslethal.com/launchers/ and http://arwenlesslethal.com/munitions/, accessed August 31, 2021.
[28] Larkin Fourkiller, “Less Lethal: Bean Bag Rounds,” Police, March 1, 2002, https://www.policemag.com/338860/less-lethal-bean-bag-rounds, accessed August 31, 2021.
[29] Active Denial Systems FAQs, U.S. Department of Defense Joint Intermediate Force Capabilities Office, https://jnlwp.defense.gov/About/Frequently-Asked-Questions/Active-Denial-System-FAQs/, accessed September 4, 2021.
[30] The different Taser products are compared at https://taser.com/products/, accessed September 5, 2021.
[31] Josh Cain, “New BolaWrap Lasso Device Has Only Fully Wrapped an LA Suspect Once, But Police Give It High Marks,” Los Angeles Daily News, August 5, 2020, https://www.dailynews.com/2020/08/25/new-bolawrap-lasso-device-has-only-fully-wrapped-an-la-suspect-once-but-police-give-it-high-marks/, accessed September 4, 2021.
[32] Verbal Judo, https://verbaljudo.com/about/, accessed September 4, 2021.
[33] “Privacy,” Electronic Frontier Foundation, https://www.eff.org/issues/privacy, accessed September 4, 2021.
[34] International Space Station Facts and Figures, NASA, May 13, 2021, https://www.nasa.gov/feature/facts-and-figures, accessed August 28, 2021.
[35] Denise Chow, “To Cheaply Go: How Falling Launch Costs Fueled A Thriving Economy In Orbit,” NBC News, April 8, 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/space-launch-costs-growing-business-industry-rcna23488, accessed May 30, 2022.
[36] Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, (New York: Random House, 1994), 337, 384.