Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech
• Air
• Ground
• Sea
• Space
• Spec Ops
• Spies
• Weapons
• Gear
• News
• Cyber
• Wars
• About
Home » Spies » Big Bro's Watching » Police Drones Are Already Here
Like 239 likes. Sign Up to see what your friends like.
Page 1 of 16
So everyone noticed when Congress told the FAA to get American airspace ready for regular drone flights, this move prompted a general Internet freakout about privacy concerns. No one likes the thought of being watched by the very drones that spy on suspected insurgents on Middle Eastern battlefields. Well, U.S. police departments are already gearing up to deploy UAV in American cities.
http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 2 of 16
The video below shows the Seattle Police Department’s new Draganflyer UAV . The kite-sized micro chopper weighs three pounds and can stay aloft for about 20 minutes. As a Seattle PD officer explains in the video, it’s not allowed to fly above 400 feet and has to be operated from a SPD vehicle. Just wait, though, law enforcement agencies accross the country will soon have bigger drones capable of conducting serious suveillance. Heck, a much bigger Shadowhawk drone-chopper belonging to the Montgomery County,Texas, Sheriff’s Office recently crashed into a SWAT truck belonging to said office .
Click through the jump to watch a video of Seattle’s finest’s latest toy.
Via sUAS News.
Share |
March 8th, 2012 | Big Bro's Watching , Cops and Robbers , Drones | Comments (114)
Login
• This blog post
• All blog posts
Subscribe to this blog post's comments through...
•
•
Add t
Add to My Yahoo!
•
•
Add to Google
Add t http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech
RSS Icon
RSS Feed
Subscribe via email
Email Address
Follow the discussion
Subscribe
Logging you in...
Close
Login to IntenseDebate
Or create an account
Username or Email:
Password:
Forgot login?
OpenID
Cancel Login
Close
Username or Email:
Password:
Lost your password?
Cancel Login
Close
Login with your OpenID
Or create an account using OpenID
OpenID URL: http://
Back
Cancel Login
Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout
• Logged in as
Sort by: Date Rating Last Activity
+3 Vote up Vote down http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/
Page 3 of 16
6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 4 of 16
Cunninglinguine · 15 weeks ago
Huzzah, target practice!
**** da police.
Report
Reply
1 reply · active 15 weeks ago
-11 Vote up Vote down
Morty · 15 weeks ago
Still like my Idea of mounting guns on these things
Report
Reply
2 replies · active 2 weeks ago
+22 Vote up Vote down
AlC · 15 weeks ago
Just how far are we going to permit the police to go in "protecting" us ?
Report
Reply
19 replies · active 5 weeks ago
+25 Vote up Vote down
Lance · 15 weeks ago
Well there goes the 4th amendment. Big Brother is here to watch you your wife and family do every thing and they impose what they want you to do. Sad day George Washington is rolling over in his grave.
Report
Reply
+20 Vote up Vote down
Diane Alden · 15 weeks ago
It is SO over with .. the militarization of the police and turning the military into police will end badly ... for us.
Report
Reply
5 replies · active 15 weeks ago
+6 Vote up Vote down
Zeyn · 15 weeks ago if they use them like they already use choppers i don't mind, but if they start using them to spy over suspects or normal civilians then its a different story... http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 5 of 16
Report
Reply
3 replies · active 15 weeks ago
+5 Vote up Vote down
Ezra Shabot · 15 weeks ago
Land of the free indeed...
Report
Reply
+2 Vote up Vote down
SSG Joseph G VanDyck · 15 weeks ago
This is all well and good, but I believe it would be target practice for sure. Now when are law enforcement gonna start using the BATS/HIIDE system here in the US? The civilian law enforcement rep we had on our team in Iraq in 2006/2007 was wondering the same thing also.
Report
Reply
0 Vote up Vote down
DhuntAUS · 15 weeks ago
Didn't they use a UAV in England not so long ago to catch a baddy ? I like the idea but there is a line. This would never even get of the ground in AUS.
Report
Reply
1 reply · active 15 weeks ago
+2 Vote up Vote down
Misnomer · 15 weeks ago
"That awkward moment when you leave the bathroom door open and see a drone taking a picture of you outside the window"
Report
Reply
-5 Vote up Vote down
Andrew · 15 weeks ago
I think some of you are a little too crazy for your own good, what police departments have you experienced that actually want to waste time or money spying on citizens with no actual background for the espionage? I hate to break it to you, but most metropolitan police helicopters already carry surveillance gear like FLIR, this is just a much cheaper-to-operate form of that.
You guys act like you live in Detroit during Robocop II
Report http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 6 of 16
Reply
8 replies · active 2 weeks ago
+8 Vote up Vote down
Nicky 75p · 15 weeks ago
I think were at a point were people who find the police UAV repulsive will find ways of shooting it down.
Report
Reply
5 replies · active 15 weeks ago
+6 Vote up Vote down
Thunder350 80p · 15 weeks ago
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety
-Benjamin Franklin
Welcome to our new police state, makes you wonder about who the true puppet master is.
Report
Reply
1 reply · active 2 weeks ago
+1 Vote up Vote down
Colt · 15 weeks ago
Damn congress not seeing this being a liablity. If there a special need to find a fugitive thats one thing (set hounds out) but general surveillance on anyone is another. Isn't this running into ease dropping on people? Old
Blue Thunder movie back in '80s maybe been overblown, (but used then available technologies) now were going see it in action on drones. Police State almost exactly whats going to happen when drones enter every day use by the police.
Report
Reply
3 replies · active 14 weeks ago
-4 Vote up Vote down
Tran · 15 weeks ago
Can someone explain in detail on how this can be a bad thing? In my honest opinion, I dont think its so bad.
Whats the difference from having drones flying over our heads compare to wasting officers patroling the street, or placing security cameras on every corner of the street? I think everyone here is a bit paranoid. I would appreciate a detailed explaination on this paranoia.
Report
Reply
12 replies · active 2 weeks ago http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 7 of 16
0 Vote up Vote down brok3n · 15 weeks ago ignore first line, meant for somebody else
Report
Reply
-5 Vote up Vote down
STemplar · 15 weeks ago
"The Terrorists Can Never Win.”
The state of Wisconsin has gone an entire deer hunting season without someone getting killed. That’s great.
There were over 600,000 hunters.
Allow me to restate that number. Over the last two months, the eighth largest army in the world – more men under arms than Iran; more than France and Germany combined – deployed to the woods of a single American state to help keep the deer menace at bay." http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/americas-other-largest-army-in-the-world/
You folks that freak out over a simple cost effective tool for law enforcement are so over the top absurd.
Report
Reply
2 replies · active 14 weeks ago
+2 Vote up Vote down robertro2 · 15 weeks ago when there is a mid air mishap can you sue the city,remember the helicopter the summer of 2011 in NYC going up and crashed into a small plane and killed them,these small drones can not see 360 like pilots can and that helicopter pilot with the top of his craft covered could not look up......
Report
Reply
-2 Vote up Vote down
Riceball · 15 weeks ago
I don't think we have much to worry really, if these drones start to get too advanced to the point where they don't need a human pilot controlling them then the police unions will be all up in arms over it since that would mean fewer cops would be needed and fewer cops means weaker unions.
Report
Reply
1 reply · active 15 weeks ago
0 Vote up Vote down
Sanem · 15 weeks ago http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 8 of 16 lol they can hack you internet, tracking your every digital move they can trace your mobile phone, tracking your every physical move they can hack your web- and phonecams and microphones, spying into your living room, listening to your every word they can spy on you with camera's in every store and street corner, from satellites and manned aircrafts when you go through customs, they scan your every being, take your finger prints and retina image even though you've broken no laws
10 years from now they'll have sensors that can see through walls, read your mind, scan your DNA without you even knowing it but yes, unmanned aircraft are the line in the sand meanwhile, UAVs that save lives and money on a daily basis require a 3 year waiting period to aquire for
Police, even though anyone can buy them for a few hundred bucks on the internet and spy on you with ease and with little risk of being detected or found. THAT is absurd
Report
Reply
+1 Vote up Vote down jumper · 15 weeks ago
Just an innocent little tool for some warrentless surveilance... nothing to worry about.
Report
Reply
+3 Vote up Vote down
CoCowboy692000 22p · 15 weeks ago
Welp, considering they've passed NDAA, The program to place 30,000 drones over the HOMELAND! and the
Enemy Expatriation Act, which will make it very easy for the US government to strip away our citizenship at will... These VIOLATE Posse Comitatus and Habeas Corpus. WE'RE REALLY IN DEEP DEEP DOOO
DOOO!!!
THESE ARE KEWL ADVANCEMENTS, HOWEVER - American's have been betrayed by our own Congress and it remains to be seen if our Military will betray us or defend us against enemies within, as they're sworn to do.
Let's hope to God, it's the latter...
Report
Reply
3 replies · active 15 weeks ago
+2 Vote up Vote down nic · 15 weeks ago http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 9 of 16 they can use infared,and know exactly every more u make, its not a uav it is a flying computer. It remenbers everthing.
Report
Reply
0 Vote up Vote down sean · 15 weeks ago i have been flying rc for many years.....tri-copters and quad-copters I think after they see the cost to run 1 of these into the ground a few times while learning to fly they will all back off to some point....the fact that they don't like any high wind , rain, snow or anthing out of the normal. and how long will it be b4 the bad guys start buying their own to fight back with.....or just the video gear to watch what the drones are seeing....and use it for their own gains
Report
Reply
3 replies · active 14 weeks ago
-4 Vote up Vote down
Darkness · 15 weeks ago
You idiots. The police have been flying HELICOPTERS in the air for decades. They have strict rules about what they can do with things they observe while flying. Do you fools really expect the police will be legally allowed to spy on random citizens smoking joints in their living room and be able to use that in court? Well if you do then get off the internet, because you don't know a damn thing about the law, or about how the police do their business. Half of you pretend to be gangsters, and the other half pretend your some kind of freedom fighter militia separatists. You make me sick.
Report
Reply
8 replies · active 14 weeks ago
1 2Next »
Enter text right here!
Comment as a Guest, or login:
• Login to IntenseDebate
• Login to WordPress.com
• Login to Twitter
• facebook
• Login to OpenID
Go back http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 10 of 16
Share on Facebook
Connected as ( Logout )
Email (optional)
Not displayed publicly.
Tweet this comment
Connected as ( Logout )
Email (optional)
Not displayed publicly.
Name
Email
Website (optional)
Displayed next to your comments.
Not displayed publicly.
http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 11 of 16
If you have a website, link to it here.
OpenID URL http://
Comment as a Guest or login using OpenID
Submit Comment
Subscribe to None
We welcome your comments on our blogs. We ask that you keep your comments on topic, socially acceptable and free from slander, personal attacks, threats, and discrimination. We will moderate and delete comments we find to be beyond acceptable, as well as comments containing phone numbers and email addresses. We will block commenting from users who abuse our policies. You can read the official Military.com User Agreement for more information.
Comments by IntenseDebate
Infrared Countermeasures exelisinc.com/solutions/IRCM
ITT Exelis: Protecting lifelines with the next generation of IRCM
A 12 Gauge Won't Save You www.CloseCombatTraining.c
Discover What Federal Agents & The Army Don't
Want You To Know
Online Criminal Justice studycriminaljusticeonline.com
Accredited Online Degree Program. Call Liberty now. Deadline July 25!
Online LPN Training topcareerschools.com/nursing
Want to take LPN Classes Online? Find &
Compare Best Schools Now!
Previous post: Another Creepy Cool Video: Tiny UAVs Play James Bond Theme
Next post: Cold War Tech: Soviet Torpedo Trawlers
•
◦ Turkish RF-4E Recce Jet Down Near Syria (updated)
◦ Pic of the Day: F-35B Shows Off its Gun Pod
◦ Video: Chinese Helo Barely Makes Landing at Sea
•
Tip for Defense Tech?
SEND IT!
It’s Confidential!
http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 12 of 16
•
•
•
Defense Tech examines the intersection of technology and defense from every angle and provides analysis on what’s ahead.
•
◦ Acquisition Reform
◦ Afghan Update
◦ Air
◦ Air Force
◦ Air-to-Air Combat
◦ AirSea Battle
◦ Ammo and Munitions
◦ Armor
◦ Arms Trade
◦ Army
◦ Around the Globe
◦ Artillery
◦ Assymetric Warriors
◦ Balance of Power
◦ Big Bro's Watching
◦ Bizarro
◦ Blimps
◦ Chem-Bio
◦ China Rising
◦ Civilian Apps
◦ Cloak and Dagger
◦ Coasties
◦ Commandos
◦ Comms
◦ Contingency Ops
◦ Cops and Robbers
◦ Counterinsurgency
◦ Crazy Ivan
◦ Cyber
◦ Cyber Security Center
◦ Defense Tech Poll
◦ Door Kickers
◦ Downsizing
◦ Drone Bombing Campaign
◦ Drones
◦ Drugs and Thugs
◦ Extra! Extra!
http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech
◦ Eye on China
◦ F-35 Watch
◦ Fast Movers
◦ Fire for Effect
◦ Friday Funnies
◦ Future Wars
◦ Gadgets and Gear
◦ Grand Ole Osprey
◦ Ground
◦ Ground Vehicles
◦ Guns
◦ Homeland Security
◦ Hybrid Wars
◦ IED War
◦ In the Bubble with Joe Buff
◦ Infantry Fight
◦ Info War
◦ Iran
◦ Iraq Diary
◦ Israel
◦ JSF Watch
◦ Lasers and Ray Guns
◦ Less-lethal
◦ Logistics
◦ Los Alamos and Labs
◦ Marine Corps
◦ Medic!
◦ Mercs
◦ Missiles
◦ Money Money Money
◦ MRAP Edge
◦ Navy
◦ Net-Centric
◦ News
◦ Nukes
◦ Old Skool
◦ Planes, Copters, Blimps
◦ Podcast
◦ Politricks
◦ Polmar's Perspective
◦ Private Security Firms
◦ Prompt Global Strike
◦ Rapid Fire
◦ Raptor Watch
◦ Retro-Futuro
◦ Robots
◦ Rotary Wing
◦ Sea
◦ Sea Services
◦ Ships and Subs
◦ Snipertech
◦ Space
◦ Special Ops
◦ Spies http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/
Page 13 of 16
6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech
◦ Star Wars
◦ Terror Tech
◦ Terrorism
◦ The Deadlies
◦ The Defense Biz
◦ The Peoples' Site
◦ The Tanker Tango
◦ Those Nutty Norks
◦ Training and Sims
◦ Trimble on the Case
◦ Video Lounge
◦ Wars
◦ Weapons
◦ You can run…
• search
•
Page 14 of 16
•
•
◦ Turkish RF-4E Recce Jet Down Near Syria (updated)
◦ Pic of the Day: F-35B Shows Off its Gun Pod
◦ A New Chinese Fighter!? Sigh, No
◦ Video: Chinese Helo Barely Makes Landing at Sea
◦ F-16 Co-Designer Claims F-22’s Glues Causing Hypoxia
◦ We’re Slowly Starting to See U.S.’ Cyber Weapons
◦ Pic of the Day: Digital Super Hornet http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech Page 15 of 16
•
◦ This is interesting. DoD officials to discuss V-22 Osprey "issues" with Japanese defense officials: http://t.co/UZq7kWCY 07:51:22 PM June 22, 2012 from web ReplyRetweetFavorite
◦ In case you're confused: http://t.co/iLFGDHLW 03:56:50 PM June 21, 2012 from web
ReplyRetweetFavorite
◦ AFSOC CV-22 squadron CO relived after Osprey crash: http://t.co/uN4UrO83 02:57:44 PM June
21, 2012 from web ReplyRetweetFavorite
◦ In case you missed it, Northrop Grumman rolled out the first purpose-built MQ-4C BAMS spy jet for the Navy yesterday: http://t.co/P4Nc3obN 02:42:39 PM June 15, 2012 from web
ReplyRetweetFavorite
◦ AFSOC's CV-22s won't be grounded in the wake of yesterday's Osprey crash: http://t.co/M1FoTr0K 02:39:14 PM June 15, 2012 from web ReplyRetweetFavorite
◦ FLIR tricked out a Polaris ATV with a sensor suite built for a spec ops team or border patrol unit.
#Eurosatory 12:57:23 PM June 14, 2012 from TweetDeck ReplyRetweetFavorite
◦ A model of the Chinese Norinco Sky Dragon missile defense system in development and on display at #Eursatory . http://t.co/nnPZCIlI 08:46:45 AM June 13, 2012 from TweetDeck
ReplyRetweetFavorite
3,968 followers http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012

Police Drones Are Already Here | Defense Tech
◦ Military Deals
◦ Spouse
◦ Military Community
◦ Video
• Military.com Network:
◦ Military.com
◦ CinCHouse
◦ MilBlogging
◦ Defense Tech
◦ DoD Buzz
◦ Line of Departure
◦ SpouseBuzz
◦ Fred's Place
• Services:
◦ Army
◦ Marine Corps
◦ Navy
◦ Air Force
◦ Coast Guard
◦ National Guard
◦ Military Spouse
• About Military.com:
◦ About Us
◦ Press
◦ Monster Network
◦ Advertise With Us
◦ Affiliate Program
◦ Help
◦ Feedback
◦ Privacy Policy
◦ User Agreement
◦ Mobile
◦ Site Map
Ad Choices | Become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
© 2012 Military Advantage
A Monster Company.
Page 16 of 16 http://defensetech.org/2012/03/08/police-drones-are-already-here/ 6/24/2012