I doubt that would happen in the U.S. - it seems like there would be too many liability issues around the possibility of innocent bystanders getting injured by

I doubt that would happen in the U.S. - it seems like there would be too many liability issues around the possibility of innocent bystanders getting injured by a drone in pursuit of someone. Also, a lot of employees are getting crap wages and would not want to take the risk of injuring someone if they were personally piloting the drone because they could be personally sued for injuring a bystander in the drone pursuit. If fact, the store employee in this case could even be sued even if they weren't piloting the drone themselves, eg. if they were the one who only reported the shoplifting.