Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Unmanned drones and the militarisation of UK policing...

In February of this year, Merseyside Police became the UK first police force to routinely deploy unmanned drones for normal policing duties. Trialling a small, German machine, weighing less than a kilogram, the Force began to explore how unmanned drones similar to those use to launch lethal raids in Pakistan, Afghanistan might be used to police major events, monitor traffic and address problems of anti-social disorder in Liverpool.

Whilst not equipped with weapons, civilian police drones like the one in Liverpool are equipped with digital closed circuit TV. These can record extremely high-resolution images, in the visible and intra-red parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, from heights of 500m or more. Captured data is fed back to controllers from the high-definition cameras, radar devices or infrared sensors mounted on machines. At 100m hovering height, the Merseyside police force’s drone is barely noticeable from the ground. The drone has a built-in speaker to allow instructions to be relayed to civilians on the ground. More...

Don't miss:
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  3. Google to use 'spy drones' for street mapping?
  4. Police to use drones to spy on Americans?
  5. Why killing "criminals" with drones is a war crime... 

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