UK Police Plan To Use Military-Style Spy Drones

krou writes "According to documents obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act, the UK police plan on deploying unmanned drones in the UK to 'revolutionize policing' and extend domestic 'surveillance, monitoring and evidence gathering,' which will be used in 'the routine work of the police, border authorities and other government agencies.' The documents come from the South Coast Partnership, 'a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan' in conjunction with BAE Systems. The stated aim is to introduce the system in time for the 2012 Olympics. Initially, Kent police stated that the system would be used to monitor shipping lanes and illegal immigrants, but the documents reveal that this was part of a PR strategy: 'There is potential for these [maritime] uses to be projected as a "good news" story to the public rather than more "big brother."' However, the documents talk about a much wider range of usage, such as '[detecting] theft from cash machines, preventing theft of tractors and monitoring antisocial driving,' as well as 'road and railway monitoring, search and rescue, event security and covert urban surveillance.' Also, due to the expense involved, it has also been suggested that some data could be sold off to private companies, or the drones could be used for commercial purposes."

Comments

Re:Slipperly Slope

[interval1066]

I wouldn't ever want any kind of spy drones and I think most people feel the same way.

That's the first Brit I ever heard make any kind of sense with regard to this topic. These governmental types are using YOUR money to spy on you in the name of national security. Watch for more of this type of nonsense. When Oceania finally announces it has arrived and stamps out individual freedoms and any kind of individuality it will be like this; death by a thousand little cuts, not one large chop.

Re:There's Only One Way To Boil A Frog

[BJ_Covert_Action]

Anyway, who boils frogs?

The French. What you think they don't have anything to do with this? After the royal ass kickings they earned themselves in the Napoleonic and World Wars they decided their best bet towards world domination was infiltration into and, therefore, control of the existing British Empire...of course, now that their plans are coming to fruition they realize they were about 100 years too slow. What do you think ITER is all about anyways? They are going to master fusion to appease the Greenies of America and thus infiltrate the new world empire. It was the froggies all along man.