Bone drone

A shadowtalk term for a law-enforcement or civic official whose duty is to look for trouble. Their usual assignment is to sit in pulic locations where they get a good view of the surroundings, or to watch a bank of CCTV monitors. Depending on the planet's legal system, they may be expected to deal with any criminal activity they observe, or they may simply call in jocks to deal with any trouble they see. In addition, some drones might be responsible for responding to emergency calls received from the public in their area.

Note that like other terms for officials, bone drone is a functional description. If a cop leaves his post at the monitors to patrol the area, he temporarily ceases to be a bone drone and is instead a piece walker until he gets back.

Etymology: A registry drone is a software agent which remains idle and unthinking until it sees something go wrong, at which point it reports it. A bone drone is seen as a physical analogue, a dumb cop who just sits around doing nothing. The term flesh drone is also seen occasionally, but isn't as popular (possibly because it doesn't rhyme).