Police Launch Drones Over LA

An anonymous reader writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that law enforcement officials have launched a new form of drone aircraft to patrol the skies above Los Angeles. From the article: 'Police say the drone, called the SkySeer, will be able to accomplish tasks too dangerous for officers and free up helicopters for other missions. "This technology could be used to find missing children, search for lost hikers, or survey a fire zone," said Commander Sid Heal, head of the Technology Exploration Project of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "The ideal outcome for us is when this technology becomes instrumental in saving lives."'"

Comments

Useful Non-Karma Whoring Link

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is a link to the SkySeer product on the manufacturer's web page that includes a photo of the device (looks like a model airplane): http://www.octatron.com/Products/SKS.html

actual pictures

[calin2k]

BBC has pictures http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5051142.stm

Pictures

[eander315]

Xeni Jardin (of BoingBoing and NPR fame) reported on this a few months ago. The pictures of the plane are good, but the control equipment is even more so.

Re:Umm, no thanks

[DJCacophony]

Using a UAV to circumvent fences without a warrant is the same as using infrared cameras to circumvent fences without a warrant, which has gotten cases thrown out before.

Not so fast...

[mcrbids]

Aircraft are regulated by the FAA.

This activity on Los Angeles' part got the attention of a certain pilot's association which apparently put lots of ice on the project.

So it doesn't appear to be flying anywhere above LA County anytime soon...