[HN Gopher] The NYPD is using drones 3 times more than it did la...
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       The NYPD is using drones 3 times more than it did last year
        
       Author : jbegley
       Score  : 91 points
       Date   : 2023-11-13 15:10 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (gothamist.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (gothamist.com)
        
       | mcphage wrote:
       | Who manufactured their drones? The article lists one
       | manufacturer, but then says the NYPD hasn't received it yet. So
       | what are they flying?
        
         | latchkey wrote:
         | There are several pictures of DJI products in the article.
        
           | erellsworth wrote:
           | Ironic, considering the DOJ has labeled DJI products as a
           | threat to national security.
        
             | pc86 wrote:
             | Militarized police is also a threat to national security so
             | it kind of fits.
        
             | kube-system wrote:
             | Which might by why they are acquiring drones from US
             | manufacturers, according to the article.
        
               | latchkey wrote:
               | Years ago, I backed a US based drone on kickstarter. It
               | took forever for them to send it to me. Eventually, I
               | managed to get it and I took it for one single flight and
               | it went out of control and crashed itself into the side
               | of a building. Somehow I eventually managed to get my
               | money back, thankfully.
               | 
               | The company realized that consumer focus was wrong
               | (nobody had a good experience with their product with
               | tons of complaints in user forums) and pivoted to govt
               | drones because they got millions in grant funding. I
               | can't imagine these guys ever producing anything even
               | close to the level of quality that DJI does.
               | 
               | Needless to say, their website hasn't really been updated
               | in years. The amount of grift these guys managed to pull
               | off is insane.
               | 
               | https://vantagerobotics.com/
        
               | Arrath wrote:
               | Having used several of the drones on the DoD's 'approved
               | for use on/near military property' list or whatever it's
               | called these days, they are generally speaking, flying
               | pieces of shit[0]. Our domestic manufacturers have some
               | catching up to do.
               | 
               | [0]Problems run the gamut from excessive bootup times to
               | extraordinarily poor station-keeping/wind fighting
               | ability, low speed, clunky controllers, and more!
        
         | willk wrote:
         | They article show DJI. I know the local PD's in my area are
         | also using DJI.
        
       | FirmwareBurner wrote:
       | Reminds me of this is how the police behave on getting hardware:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo63QQsm5Dw&t=72s
        
       | ipnon wrote:
       | A natural extension of the Shot Spotter system would be to
       | dispatch a small drone to go collect evidence immediately. I've
       | actually witnessed a drive by shooting in New York. The police
       | arrived in 2 minutes but the perps were gone in 2 seconds. If a
       | drone could chase after people driving around the city wantonly
       | shooting guns it would greatly improve safety of neighborhoods.
        
         | jncfhnb wrote:
         | What could possibly go wrong
        
           | jeron wrote:
           | they drive under a bridge and lose the suspects
           | 
           | that or the suspects shoot at the drone, which would be
           | really cyberpunk
        
             | doublerabbit wrote:
             | Or the drone shoots the suspects, which would be really
             | dystopian.
             | 
             | We have two universes: 2077 or 1984
        
               | kube-system wrote:
               | Militarized human-driven drones _have_ existed since the
               | 80s.
               | 
               | Militarized automated drones are being used _today_ , in
               | the wars currently happening.
               | 
               | https://www.newscientist.com/article/2278852-drones-may-
               | have...
               | 
               | https://www.newscientist.com/article/2282656-israel-used-
               | wor...
        
               | tootie wrote:
               | Arguably the V-2 rocket was the first unmanned military
               | aircraft.
        
               | jncfhnb wrote:
               | Sure but there are many military weapons that are not
               | used against one's own citizens
        
               | kube-system wrote:
               | Right. I'm saying, 2077 tech exists today -- just some
               | places decide not to use it.
        
               | jncfhnb wrote:
               | Seems... a little misleading to me. Cyberpunk's central
               | technical element is without a doubt the cybernetics.
        
               | kube-system wrote:
               | We have cybernetics today too, their aesthetic style is
               | just more Medtronic than it is Blade Runner.
        
         | gustavus wrote:
         | I love the idea. We could be marginally safer and all it would
         | require is a constant 24/7 aerial surveillance at all times.
         | I'd feel so safe and secure, it'd be like having an older
         | sibling that was always there to watch over you and make you
         | feel safe, like an older brother perhaps.
        
           | neaden wrote:
           | This has been tested before, here is an example:
           | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/baltimore-maryland-to-become-
           | fi... there is no legal objection to it as far as I
           | understand. The quality isn't super high but it let's you
           | retroactively follow vehicles to see where they have been.
        
             | adolph wrote:
             | From a June 24, 2021 ACLU press release:
             | 
             |  _BALTIMORE -- The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting
             | en banc,ruled today that the Baltimore Police Department's
             | (BPD) aerial surveillance program, which put the daytime
             | movements of virtually all Baltimore residents under
             | surveillance for 12 hours a day over six months, is
             | unconstitutional._
             | 
             | https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/federal-appeals-court-
             | ru...
             | 
             | The decision is worth a read:
             | 
             | https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-
             | courts/ca4/20...
        
           | tootie wrote:
           | I mean, they do it now with noisy, expensive helicopters.
           | Drones are just cheaper and quieter.
        
         | meheleventyone wrote:
         | Wasn't the Shot Spotter thing pretty useless in reality though?
        
           | theultdev wrote:
           | What are you referencing? Everywhere it's installed officers
           | find usefulness in triangulating where shots are popped off.
           | 
           | The alternative is an extensive investigation which is
           | difficult to determine the location, if not impossible.
           | 
           | I don't mind these shot spotters being installed vs CCTVs as
           | the microphones are really just tuned for gunshots and can
           | only serve one purpose (in the current form)
        
             | meheleventyone wrote:
             | It was widely reported a few years ago that the tech was
             | pretty useless for triangulation amongst a bunch of other
             | worrying behavior by the company and police themselves:
             | https://www.techdirt.com/2021/08/26/chicago-pd-oversight-
             | say...
        
               | theultdev wrote:
               | That article is quite a mess isn't it? Seems they found
               | more of a problem with the Chicago PD than ShotSpotter.
               | 
               | > If this result is attributable in part to missing or
               | nonmatched records of investigatory stops that did take
               | place as a direct consequence of a ShotSpotter alert,
               | CPD's record-keeping practices are obstructing a
               | meaningful analysis of the effectiveness of the
               | technology.
               | 
               | Should have been the end of the article right there, but
               | techdirt decided to write one anyway.
               | 
               | And false positives really aren't that big a deal anyway.
               | You get false police reports, at least with the sensors
               | you can recalibrate and adjust.
        
               | meheleventyone wrote:
               | "The study, which reviewed ShotSpotter deployments for
               | roughly 21 months (from July 1, 2019, through April 14,
               | 2021) using data obtained from the City of Chicago, found
               | that 89% of ShotSpotter's reports led police to find no
               | gun-related crime and 86% turned up no crime at all,
               | amounting to about 40,000 dead-end ShotSpotter
               | deployments."
               | 
               | If only we took companies out to defend their product at
               | face value we could waste even more time and resources!
        
               | theultdev wrote:
               | Yes and then they go to say there's missing data for them
               | to attribute investigations to ShotSpotter due to CPD's
               | lack of record keeping.
               | 
               | So much so that it's "obstructing a meaningful analysis
               | of the effectiveness of the technology". Their words, not
               | mine.
        
               | meepmorp wrote:
               | That would undermine the original point you made, though:
               | 
               | > Everywhere it's installed officers find usefulness in
               | triangulating where shots are popped off.
               | 
               | At best, cops are going on 'feels' here because,
               | presumably, the data aren't sufficient to provide a solid
               | basis for analysis. Or the police are withholding data
               | that proves the system works well, which prima facie
               | seems unlikely.
        
               | theultdev wrote:
               | I've only heard anecdotes of cops saying it worked well,
               | and it does seem like a good investment and an achievable
               | goal.
               | 
               | I don't know what the real numbers are, but from that
               | article it seems noone does...
               | 
               | A proper reporting of numbers would be nice.
        
               | kube-system wrote:
               | You wouldn't want to waste officers time responding to
               | those calls, but sending an automated surveillance camera
               | is a different use of resources. Most surveillance
               | cameras spend 99.99+% of their time watching no crime
               | happening.
               | 
               | I would rather the cameras go to the gunshot noises than
               | stay bolted to a pole outside my house, which is where
               | they are now.
        
               | meheleventyone wrote:
               | Those systems wouldn't be that automated, you'd need a
               | whole fleet of techs and others to maintain them. And why
               | to chase the 10% change the alert is anything at all. To
               | me it sounds like the tech improvement needed in this
               | situation is being applied in the wrong place.
        
               | kube-system wrote:
               | Yes, and they have those systems (fixed cameras,
               | shotspotter, and drones) now that they maintain. We're
               | just talking about using them together.
               | 
               | Also, a faster response could result in a better rate of
               | finding crime. "89% of ShotSpotter's reports led police
               | to find no gun-related crime" does not equal "89% of
               | reports weren't gunshots". It could be that police show
               | up too late.
        
               | meheleventyone wrote:
               | > Yes, and they have those systems (fixed cameras,
               | shotspotter, and drones) now that they maintain. We're
               | just talking about using them together.
               | 
               | In a sort of magical way where there is a drone that can
               | easily be dispatched from within it's range that has the
               | intelligence to not only navigate to the scene through a
               | complex city environment but also find and gather
               | evidence. I bet any current drone deployment is likely to
               | be slower than dispatching people patrolling and there
               | will be far fewer of them than regular cops. It's
               | basically fantasy when the Shot Spotter stuff doesn't
               | even seem to work.
        
               | kube-system wrote:
               | Statements like "shotspotter doesn't work" are reductive.
               | Let's be specific about what it does and doesn't do. Some
               | departments have found the data to not be actionable
               | using current response methods. However, the systems are
               | good at detecting gunshot like noises. This data is much
               | more actionable for placing a camera than how cameras are
               | placed today, which is "this intersection is near where
               | crime happened last year, let's bolt a camera to the
               | pole"
               | 
               | Drone navigation has been progressing quite a lot over
               | the past decade, and law enforcement in some places is
               | _already_ using them in an automated way, as the article
               | mentions. Also, the suggestion above was forward looking,
               | it wasn 't suggesting that the NYPD should glue these
               | systems together today.
        
               | vkou wrote:
               | > Let's be specific about what it does and doesn't do
               | 
               | It doesn't tell a gunshot from a dumpster lid slamming
               | shut.
               | 
               | It does produce almost entirely false positives.
               | 
               | It doesn't identify the location of a gunshot to any
               | useful level of precision.
               | 
               | I suppose if you want to start a police state, and make
               | every fourth resident a cop, you might be able to
               | mitigate the 90% false-positive rate, and the horrible
               | location-identification rate, but at that point, do you
               | even need shot-spotter?
        
               | kube-system wrote:
               | Those are exactly some of the things that augmenting the
               | data with video would help to address, which was the
               | point of the above suggestion.
               | 
               | Right now, police have data about where loud sounds
               | generally come from, and video from fixed poles where
               | crime happened in previous years. Both of these aren't
               | great data points on their own.
               | 
               | The intersection of that data: [Video around locations
               | where loud noises just happened] is probably much better
               | than disjointed data points of [video of where crime
               | happened in previous years] and [general locations of
               | where loud sounds are happening].
        
               | crazygringo wrote:
               | Yeah, I'd be very surprised to see triangulation work
               | well. When you walk around neighborhoods where all the
               | buildings are four to six stories tall, you can be
               | totally deceived about what direction sounds are coming
               | from, because there are so many sonic reflections.
               | 
               | If you built towers for microphone above the cityscape
               | you could get an accurate triangulation, but obviously
               | nobody's doing that.
        
               | oh_sigh wrote:
               | You only have two ears, very close together. Would it be
               | confusing if you had 20 ears spread out all over the
               | neighborhood?
        
               | crazygringo wrote:
               | Yes, because the signal will be equally confusing.
               | 
               | A sensor 4 blocks away will often record a much louder
               | sound than one half a block away, because of buildings
               | that are variously absorbing or reflecting sound.
               | 
               | That makes triangulation utterly useless.
               | 
               | You can localize to maybe a 20 square block area, but
               | that's not a whole lot for cops to go on.
        
               | oh_sigh wrote:
               | Loudness isn't too important - timing is. Even with the
               | 4-block-away mic being on a direct line of sight, and the
               | half-block-away mic being around a corner, the half-
               | block-away mic will perceive the event .5s or more before
               | the 4-block away mic does.
        
               | meheleventyone wrote:
               | We have a neighbouring ground-floor apartment with a hot
               | tub outside and when people are out the back there it
               | sounds like they are chatting right outside a second
               | floor window of our house. It's pretty spooky!
        
               | josefresco wrote:
               | Hot tub acoustics are wild. When my family is using ours
               | and I'm not, I can hear every single word from... inside
               | the house! At least our neighborhood is getting
               | entertained!
        
           | kube-system wrote:
           | As I understand, the main limitation is the speed of human
           | response after the fact and the limited number of officers
           | that make false positives costly to respond to. Criminals
           | don't tend to stick around at the scene of a shooting, and
           | you don't necessarily want to waste a bunch of officers
           | responding to bad data.
        
             | s1artibartfast wrote:
             | I don't think false positives was the bottleneck as much as
             | the fact that data on shots fired isn't especially useful
             | of actionable.
        
               | omginternets wrote:
               | It's useful as a signal to dispatch a unit.
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | Maybe I'm cynical, but what would be the point if The
               | criminals are long gone?
               | 
               | I live near a lot of urban gunfire and I can't imagine
               | what they would do unless there is a dead body.
        
               | theultdev wrote:
               | What if the criminals aren't long gone and the gunfire
               | persisted long enough to kill more innocent bystanders?
               | 
               | What if the arrival of the police or the sound of sirens
               | dispelled the gunfire early enough to save those
               | bystanders?
               | 
               | What if that body they find isn't quite dead, but
               | bleeding out and they are able to save them?
        
               | omginternets wrote:
               | Right? I'm at a loss as to how someone could think an
               | unhurried response to gunfire is appropriate.
        
               | omginternets wrote:
               | I can think of several things:
               | 
               | 1. Administer first aid
               | 
               | 2. Gather witnesses
               | 
               | 3. Preserve evidence
               | 
               | 4. Coordinate with other units to grid-search for
               | suspicious persons or vehicles
               | 
               | 5. In some cases, gather evidence/testimony that enables
               | immediate pursuit
               | 
               | You know... police work.
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | I was speaking more in a practical sense, and I think you
               | are responding more in ideal sense. I agree some of those
               | things would be nice.
               | 
               | However, at some point there are too many shots to even
               | show up for, let alone do the more involved tasks you
               | mention, and I think this is the situations some cities
               | using the service found themselves in. At that point, it
               | just becomes a data collection project, with unclear
               | goals.
               | 
               | For what it is worth, I think we have ShotSpotter in my
               | location, but have never seen police physically
               | responding to shots fired. That is not to say it isn't
               | useful in other locations
        
               | kube-system wrote:
               | Yes, but the above comment is suggesting that with video,
               | the data could be more actionable.
        
           | chimeracoder wrote:
           | > Wasn't the Shot Spotter thing pretty useless in reality
           | though?
           | 
           | Depends on what you define as "useless".
           | 
           | It was objectively bad at identifying gunshots (the precision
           | and recall were horrendous) and at reducing gun violence.
           | 
           | But it was really good at manufacturing probable cause,
           | because the false positive rate was so high that police could
           | use the sound of a dumpster lid closing as a legal reason to
           | detain and search anyone who they wanted in that general
           | area.
        
             | mrguyorama wrote:
             | Wasn't the contractor managing Shot Spotter caught
             | falsifying data outright to help cops who wanted probable
             | cause?
             | 
             | https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/its-time-police-
             | stop-u...
        
         | tempodox wrote:
         | Yay, and the price would only be ubiquitous surveillance of
         | everyone 24/7. What a steal!
        
           | Angostura wrote:
           | How does follow, from the police deploying a drone to quickly
           | react to a call? I'm all for pointing out problema, but tht
           | sounds like catastrophising.
        
             | tamimio wrote:
             | Criminal shooting the drone down, while non-criminals that
             | are under surveillance won't. A police person cannot look
             | inside of your house without a warrant, while a flying
             | drone can have a 4K of what's inside. You shouldn't be
             | Identified (asked for an ID) without breaking the law,
             | while a drone can record and facial recognize you without
             | committing any offense. List goes on
        
           | kube-system wrote:
           | Using shotspotter to dispatch them would be a limit on the
           | way video surveillance is done now, which is to just leave
           | them in fixed locations to record 24/7.
        
           | ethanbond wrote:
           | Realistically as the price of this technology goes down and
           | as crime continues to exist, the only actual safeguards
           | against ubiquitous surveillance will be laws. There's no
           | reason you couldn't have the system proposed and have
           | extremely strong laws around the use and retention of the
           | acquired video, e.g. the captured video can only be used in
           | cases against the people who triggered the initial
           | activation.
           | 
           | Inconvenient but there's literally no other way for this to
           | go. Laws are our only hope -- technology will continue on its
           | march.
        
             | ender341341 wrote:
             | I had this conversation with someone recently around
             | ubiquitous traffic cameras to help enforce speed limits (in
             | Washington the police seem to have basically stopped
             | enforcing speed laws it seems and people are getting kinda
             | crazy so we were discussing alternative options like
             | tracking when you get on the freeway and off and
             | calculating average speed as an option), the problem is
             | it's easy to write the law today in a pretty acceptable way
             | "Data can only be stored for x-hours unless speeding is
             | detected then it's recorded as part of the record for the
             | ticket", but the problem is once the system is deployed
             | it's much easier for law makers to then slowly roll back
             | those protections, and some of them aren't even that
             | ridiculous, like tying it to amber/silver alerts, most
             | wouldn't object there, but eventually they'll try for "we
             | want to keep records around so we can get a list of who was
             | driving in the area of a crime", and that'll start with a
             | warrant but we've seen how willing prosecutors are to
             | completely ignore violations of that.
             | 
             | Somewhat rant-y I know, but just kinda a cautionary around
             | the "well we can trust the government to keep laws as
             | initially written and not remove all the parts that are
             | there to protect are rights".
        
           | sitzkrieg wrote:
           | not to mention shot spotters don't work
        
             | kube-system wrote:
             | Define "work".
             | 
             | They do indicate where loud noises are happening. That's
             | might not be an actionable place to send an officer 15
             | minutes from now, which is the status quo, but it might be
             | a great place to have drone video in 60 seconds.
        
               | thorncorona wrote:
               | > They do indicate where loud noises are happening.
               | 
               | The point of a shot spotter is to tell the PD _where_ the
               | loud noises are happening. Which the shot spotter can 't
               | do effectively.
               | 
               | If you wanted to know something was happening, people
               | already phone in when gunshots are heard.
        
               | kube-system wrote:
               | Right, that is the point of the above suggestion of
               | adding fast-follow video to the equation.
               | 
               | * If all know is that a loud noise happened, in a general
               | area, you don't know much.
               | 
               | * If you know that a loud noise happened, and you see a
               | video of kids lighting off fireworks, you have a pretty
               | good idea that it wasn't gunshots, and that it isn't
               | worth sending humans.
               | 
               | * If you know that a loud noise happened, and you see
               | people with guns or people lying in the street, you may
               | have a good reason to send a human response.
        
         | dmitrygr wrote:
         | I wish there was a way to send all y'all who want to live in a
         | 24/7 surveillance dystopia to live in one, and leave the rest
         | of us to enjoy dangerous liberty.
        
           | pixxel wrote:
           | They'd be insistent on you enjoying surveillance, too.
        
             | psychlops wrote:
             | "Cause we're all in this together!"
        
           | salamandersss wrote:
           | Plenty of rural places like that. Many on HN would call them
           | unregulated shitholes but it's not hard to find a place where
           | police are an hour drive away and the residents are expected
           | for better or worse to handle our own business.
           | 
           | We like it that way, and we're glad the others feel unwelcome
           | here.
        
             | kube-system wrote:
             | I have lived in both places. People in both places like to
             | cheerlead for their chosen way of life, convinced that they
             | are right and everyone else is wrong.
             | 
             | The truth is that rural and urban living have different
             | pros and cons and different wants and needs. There's no one
             | ideal way of living.
        
             | gosub100 wrote:
             | your comment could apply equally to (urban|rural) areas. I
             | see no distinction, "handle our own business" could mean
             | the urban credo "stop snitching". police are an hour
             | (-drive) away could mean police are investigating a more
             | serious offense and won't show up to your 'hood.
        
             | sneak wrote:
             | Section 702 doesn't care if you live far away from police.
             | You're still under total communications and economic
             | surveillance unless you ditch your phone and payment cards.
        
         | fasthands9 wrote:
         | I'm skeptical this would ever be more cost efficient than just
         | a series of cameras capable of tracking cars/people/objects
         | from one view to the next.
         | 
         | The cameras would also have the benefit of footage being
         | accessed after the fact in the case of a carjacking or mugging
         | or whatever, even if no shot was fired.
        
           | adolph wrote:
           | Similar to the "Persistent Surveillance Systems" deployed to
           | Baltimore in 2016 [0]. The hypothesis was to deploy something
           | similar to the military "Gorgon Stare" [1] program
           | domestically.
           | 
           |  _Wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) is an approach to
           | surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence-gathering that
           | employs specialized software and a powerful camera system--
           | usually airborne, and for extended periods of time--to detect
           | and track hundreds of people and vehicles moving out in the
           | open, over a city-sized area, kilometers in diameter. For
           | this reason, WAMI is sometimes referred to as wide-area
           | persistent surveillance (WAPS) or wide-area airborne
           | surveillance (WAAS)._ [2]
           | 
           | 0. https://www.wired.com/story/cities-curb-surveillance-
           | baltimo...
           | 
           | 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgon_Stare
           | 
           | 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide-area_motion_imagery
        
         | 3seashells wrote:
         | Need a getaway gimmick? Buy the master laster, a remote
         | detonated drive by Sounds stem guaranteed to keep the little
         | blue men busy. In your dark et stores now. Certified cartel
         | tech quality.
         | 
         | Tech will never solve the root cause of America's crime
         | problem, the societal level hatred for the working poor.
        
         | tamimio wrote:
         | It will be used in a mass surveillance, a criminal will not
         | hesitate to shoot it or take that drone down, while the law
         | abiding citizen won't.
        
       | peder wrote:
       | And they're using drones infinity more than they did before
       | drones were invented
        
         | onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
         | We'll need more "automated" policing (and everything) as a
         | larger share of local budgets goes to pensions instead of
         | actually providing services.
         | 
         | Unless life expectancy ticks up, unexpectedly and dramatically,
         | the share of local budgets going to pensions should plateau in
         | the next 5-20 years in most places.
         | 
         | After that - the decline in public services might finally stop.
        
       | anttisalmela wrote:
       | Entire police force of Finland (~7300) is only about fifth of
       | NYPD (~33000 officers), but they have over 10 times more drones,
       | more than 330.
       | 
       | https://poliisi.fi/en/unmanned-aerial-vehicles
        
         | alex_young wrote:
         | For the entire country? Finland is ~277 times the size of NYC,
         | so drones / km is much lower right?
        
           | Smar wrote:
           | Good that count of polices is better than NY at least.
        
       | local_crmdgeon wrote:
       | Good. There's a lot of unrest in the city, and cops can't be
       | everywhere. I know HN is very anti-cop, but as an NYC resident,
       | voter, and politically active person I support this.
        
         | tootie wrote:
         | I haven't noticed. I see a lot more mentally ill people on the
         | loose, but not really any perceptible increase in crime. I'm
         | hoping they hover one of these over Flatbush and Dekalb and
         | ticket all the drivers weaving through pedestrians.
        
       | lasermike026 wrote:
       | Do you know what the NYPD is not doing? Upholding the law,
       | maintaining a good diet, and exercising.
        
       | b8 wrote:
       | I wonder if protestors will make EMP guns or use umbrellas to
       | avoid drones/cameras like the Hong Kong protestors.
        
       | m3kw9 wrote:
       | More effective than a heli
        
       | tootie wrote:
       | Unrelated, but I saw what I think is a quadcopter air taxi land
       | at the seaport today. I assume it's got a pilot, but it's
       | interesting to see the quadcopter format in something so big.
        
       | whartung wrote:
       | There may be an interesting space in "right to drone" (or however
       | you want to put it).
       | 
       | Simply, considering the one mention how they used drones to
       | monitor protests, it may be fair to assume that these drones were
       | being used in way or in places where it may well have been
       | illegal for civilians to use such systems (I am not well informed
       | on where civilians can or can not use drones, I just know,
       | anecdotally, that it seems the air space for civilian drones
       | continues to shrink).
       | 
       | That suggests that the police have authority to use air space for
       | their purposes, such as monitoring civilian activity, but
       | civilians do not have a similar, legal, capability to use the
       | same technology to monitor police activity.
       | 
       | Police have always had extra powers. I don't think I can hire a
       | private investigator to go to court, convince a judge, and get a
       | writ, or warrant, or whatever to place a tap on another persons
       | phone, like the police can.
       | 
       | But, even still, its fair to argue that the separation of powers
       | between the state and citizenry should be narrow. Police activity
       | in public is, well, in public, and I think well within the
       | purview of the citizenry to be able to watch and monitor freely.
       | But, in specific regards to these drone uses, and restrictions
       | there on, I don't know if that's a level playing field any more.
        
         | adolph wrote:
         | From the article:
         | 
         |  _Federal drone law says that "no person may operate a small
         | unmanned aircraft over a human being." But the NYPD has an
         | exemption waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration
         | through August 2025 that allows it to fly drones in populated
         | areas, at night, over 400 feet in the air, among other things._
        
         | vondur wrote:
         | Heck, they have the ability to have helicopters flying overhead
         | whenever they feel, so drones are just an extension of that
         | power. Or at least, that is how they would spin it.
        
       | cristeigabriel wrote:
       | it would be really interesting to sabotage these
        
       | INTPenis wrote:
       | Local police force here in Sweden too. It's kinda nuts for me to
       | turn a corner and see a police van with a dude wearing a visor
       | and a control panel.
       | 
       | And sometimes I've seen the drones hovering in the city, just
       | watching, getting a bird's eye view.
       | 
       | I've also seen them track counter protests from the sky. And yes
       | I did of course imagine some sort of radio jamming equipment, but
       | the problem is that police are everywhere and if they see where
       | you're at they will quickly scramble to arrest you.
       | 
       | An optimal solution would be maximum distance, and covertness.
        
         | nextworddev wrote:
         | Sounds dystopian
        
       | cheriot wrote:
       | I wish SFPD used drones more often. Instead they say nothing can
       | be done because they're prohibited from high speed chases where
       | it endangers the public.
        
       | tamimio wrote:
       | > We're out there using drones to fight crime
       | 
       | They will be used in anything but to fighting crimes.
        
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