Miami-Dade police buy drones

[Demeter]

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-12-09/news/miami-dade-police-buy-drones/

In places such as Kabul, Gaza, and Baghdad, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) hovering over homes, following suspects, and tracking enemies of the state are a daily reality.

So where are the high-tech drones buzzing to next? Miami-Dade County, natch!

The Miami-Dade Police Department is poised to become the first large metro force using drones in its aerial missions. The department finalized a deal to buy a drone called T-Hawk from defense firm Honeywell and officially applied for permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last month to begin flying it around the county.

What's not clear is how cops will sort out the raft of thorny privacy questions hovering around plans for using this powerful, new eye in the sky.

"At this point, it doesn't really matter if you're against this technology, because it's coming," says P. W. Singer, author of Wired for War and an expert on drones. "The precedent that is set in Miami could be huge."

[villager]

1. Well, with all the bovine-style conditioning we've had at airports, with the "Patriot" act, etc.

--which both parties are, of course, complicit in -- I can't imagine there'll be too big an outcry.

[midnight]

2. K&R

[Newest Reality]

3. We are now the

the terra'ists and the results of corporate/government Fascism is on display.

But wait! There's MORE!

No surprises here.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. The inability to see and avoid is quite literally a killer

Historically it has meant that it must be visible to the operator at all times. Also the issues of uplink loss will need to be covered. Small UAVs like T-Hawk are much more dependent on them than larger UAVs (Predator, Global Hawk). More on T-Hawk here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeywell_RQ-16_T-Hawk

The article is wrong about Miami being the first as other US police agencies have been looking into this as well. None have received FAA approval to date.

Given the large about of technical issues, I doubt there will be a privacy issue any time soon.

[awoke_in_2003]

11. "None have received FAA approval to date"...

I work in aviation, and most think that the FAA are jerks- I hope they continue to be so :)

[kayakjohnny]

5. People will be looking to to pop these things out of the sky.

Yes, they can reach 10 thousand feet. But they will also be close to the ground.

And then it will be like duck-hunting.

There will be close calls and all kinds of general aviation glitches too.

People will react in self-defense, knowing how these things kill innocent people all the time.

And some folks will pop them out of the sky just for sport.

And that will be really really funny.

[marmar]

6. Good Lord. Real life is becoming a bad movie.

nt

[usregimechange]

7. Lawsuit please.

[jtuck004]

8. Military technology used on a United States civilian population? Something wrong about that...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

[somone]

9. We're becoming an occupied country

[pscot]

10. Hey! It beats kicking down doors

And the State is spared the expense of a trial.

[XanaDUer]

12. Reason number 5,765 why I won't be returning home to S. FL

:scared:

[Joanne98]

13. Oh this was sooo predictable! THE POLICE STATE MOVES FORWARD!