The Arlington Police Department is in the first part of its experiment in using unmanned aircraft to assist in law enforcement.
The department has been testing and evaluating two battery-operated, remote-controlled aircraft over a small, restricted airspace near Lake Arlington Dam, away from populated areas.
They have fire fighting applications too, but technology intended for one use always has several other potential applications.
In a City Council briefing Tuesday, Bowman said the aircraft are capable of carrying cameras that shoot high-quality still pictures and video and have night-vision capability. The aircraft also have heat-sensing technology the fire department can use.
“Obviously, Texas is prone to a lot of dry weather and large fires,” said Deputy Chief Lauretta Hill, who oversees homeland security and special events for the department. “Being able to send a vehicle up and sense the origin of the fire will give them the the tools in order to determine where they’ll deploy their resources.”
Video at the link. They’re slick looking, I’ll give them that. Their price and expendability makes them obviously useful. But maybe a little too useful. Their potential deployment seems like the beginning of a big change in the citizen’s relationship to law enforcement.
Seeing as Bell Helicopter is just next door, this *could* be done with a Bell/Northrop-Grumman Fire-X demonstrator, but the RC helicopter is definitely more cost effective. On the other hand, a quarter-century ago I know folks were sending up video-cameras in RC model airplanes, so this isn’t a radical new idea. Besides, given the cost of this gear, what’s to stop civilians from putting their own drones up for whatever purpose?
Great idea on the civilian aspect of this idea, Evan! Let’s definitely take it further; why can’t civilians build and operate these drones themselves to patrol their own and surrounding neighborhoods, in conjunction with local law enforcement and oversight? The technology is simple enough that it can be done by just about anyone, and as long as someone’s overseeing it, why not?
Technology is the great leveller.
http://www.diydrones.com/