Third of Public Fears Police Use of Drones...

[Indi Guy]

Source: News Telegram

[font size="1"]Members of the Montgomery County, Texas, SWAT team stand with a ShadowHawk drone in this September 2011 photo provided by Vanguard Defense Industries. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)[/font]


WASHINGTON — More than a third of Americans worry their privacy will suffer if drones like those used to spy on U.S. enemies overseas become the latest police tool for tracking suspected criminals at home, according to an Associated Press-National Constitution Center poll.

Congress has directed the Federal Aviation Administration to come up with safety regulations that will clear the way for routine domestic use of unmanned aircraft within the next three years. The government is under pressure from a wide range of interests to open U.S. skies to drones. Oil companies want them to monitor pipelines. Environmentalists want them to count sea lions on remote islands. Farmers want them to fly over crops with sensors that can detect which fields are wet and which need watering. They’re already being used to help fight forest fires. And the list goes on.

Manufacturers are also keen to cash in on what they expect to be a burgeoning new drone market. Government and commercial drone-related expenditures are forecast to total $89 billion worldwide over the next decade. On the leading edge of that new market are state and local police departments, who say that in many cases drones are cheaper, more practical and more effective than manned aircraft. Most of them would be small drones, generally weighing less than 55 pounds. They could be used, for example, to search for missing children or to scout a location ahead of a SWAT team.

But privacy advocates caution that drones equipped with powerful cameras, including the latest infrared cameras that can “see” through walls, listening devices and other information-gathering technology raise the specter of a surveillance society in which the activities of ordinary citizens are monitored and recorded by the authorities...

Read more: http://www.telegram.com/article/20120928/NEWS/109289614/1052

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Related:

Huffington Post
Drone Lobbying Ramps Up Among Industry Manufacturers, Developers...


...The top recipient was Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), the caucus co-chair who also heads the House Armed Services Committee. He received $176,500 in donations from major defense contractors, including Northrop Grumman, whose Global Hawk drone is made in his district.


...The Association For Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), an industry trade group, has said once drones are allowed to fly in U.S. airspace, "the civil market has the potential to eclipse the defense market."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/28/drone-lobbying-companies_n_1546263.html

[OnyxCollie]

1. K&R. nt

[Robb]

2. So almost two-thirds aren't fearful.

That's more surprising to me.

[Indi Guy]

7. You're not the only one who''s surprised...

...David Eisner, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, said he was surprised by the level of support for police use of drones.

"I had assumed that the idea that American police would be using the same technology that our military is using in Afghanistan would garner an almost hysterical response," Eisner said. Support for drone use "shows that people are feeling less physically secure than they'd like to because they are willing to accept fairly extreme police action to improve that security."

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20120928_Privacy_worries_on_domestic_drone_use.html

Seems that the exaggerated threat of terror is working to make people sacrifice freedom for security; and we all know what Ben Franklin had to say about that.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. The surveillance state creeps me out.

Cameras everywhere.

License plate readers.

NSA has my emails and cell phone calls.

And don't forget internal surveillance via drug testing.

I feel like I can't take a leak in the woods without some spy satellite watching.

[byeya]

4. I am certainly a one/thirder and I bet the more informed people get

the more the concerned % will grow.

[The Wielding Truth]

5. Drones should not be in use by any local authorities. IMHO.

[Dawson Leery]

6. +1

[Ikonoklast]

8. No good will come of this, the police can't even get addresses of the people they want to arrest

correct.

I can see these things coming back five pounds heavier than when they took off with all the of buckshot that will be in them.

They still can't see everyone, everywhere, all the time.

[blackspade]

9. The MIC, bringing foreign wars home to the US

Just another way of militarizing the US.

I just love how the article conflates the use of drones to track sea lions and check for pipeline leaks with military and police uses.

Nothing to see here, move along.....

[Indi Guy]

11. Exactly - just as lower taxes for the 1%...

...are all about creating jobs.

[CrispyQ]

10. And 2/3 don't care.

What the fuck.

[2on2u]

12. Just don't have weddings outside, don't collect firewood, don't occupy anything, don't stand in long

lines waiting to vote, don't be a target like so many other hapless victims on the other side of the world.

[Indi Guy]

13. Beware the "Arsenal of Freedom" (Star Trek TNG episode)...

[2on2u]

14. It's not like a trekkie but I may have missed that one.... n/t

[Indi Guy]

15. It's an interesting parallel...

http://www.startrek.com/database_article/arsenal-of-freedom-the

(Netflix is streaming all (TV) Star Trek titles for free at this time.)

[2on2u]

16. Skynet.... thanks for the headsup, I will check Netflix out tonight... n/t

[blkmusclmachine]

17. 9/11 worked well.

The "terrorists" won. And it wasn't even close.


Operation: Northwoods

[Indi Guy]

18. Yeah..

...except that, as you know, the terrorists are not who we were told they were.