Miami prepares for police drones - March 26, 2008
Crockett and Tubbs just don’t cut it anymore, so Miami police could soon be deploying hovering drones to keep an eye on the locals.
The slightly disturbing Micro Air Vehicle weigh 6 kg and are “capable of vertical takeoff and landing with transition to sustained high-speed flight”, according to their manufacturer Honeywell. Miami/Dade police are clear to use the drones after the Federal Aviation Authority granted them an airworthiness certificate last month (press release).
“Our intentions are to use it only in tactical situations as an extra set of eyes,” police department spokesman Juan Villalba told Reuters. MAVs could be used by SWAT teams dealing with hostage taking, he added.
Not everyone is happy though.
When the possibility of these things first being used over Miami was raised commenters railed against the privacy invasion and big brother concept of unmanned spies in the sky and mused over what it would take to shoot them down...
And Wired isn't convinced by Villalba's insistance that they indend to us it "only in tactical situtations as an extra set of eyes":
We doubt it. The drone is set to go live in the Everglades, which makes us think that these things will be buzzing around searching for drug smugglers and other ne'er-do-wells.
These MAVs are already in use with American forces in Iraq. If anyone knows of cities other than Miami and Bagdad using UAVs please let us know.
Comments
Anyone who believes that these will only be used in tactical situations is too naive to be out without adult supervision.
They will go into use as a general purpose surveillance device almost immediately; it's simply too tempting for them to pass it up.
Posted by: Clifford Payne | March 27, 2008 07:57 PM
Just LOVE the "can do" music.
DARPA is so with it!
Posted by: Linda J | March 27, 2008 08:31 PM
They should have left some of the original audio in the clip. I want to know how that little flying lawnmower sounds. Could it be that it's a bit too loud in most situations to be useful as an extra set of eyes?
Posted by: marko | March 28, 2008 12:27 AM