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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."

4 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Slipperly Slope by click2005 · · Score: 4, Funny

    first beating caught on video.

    Oops.. I meant to say first beating by police caught on video.

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  2. Re:Commercial purposes? by FooAtWFU · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great Britain, I'd like to introduce you to this American invention we call the "cowboy hat". It's related to some older technology (the sombrero) and serves to protect the face (and neck) from sunburn and observation by aerial surveillance drones.

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  3. Antisocial driving? by ChinggisK · · Score: 5, Funny

    preventing theft of tractors and monitoring antisocial driving

    What the heck is 'antisocial driving'? A car driving separate from the other cars because it is shy and lacks social skills?

  4. Crop circles? by starglider29a · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe they'll catch a crop circle as it is being made.