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Canberra Police Want Drones To Track Cars
garymortimer tips this story at the Canberra Times, which starts: "Police have suggested that Canberra's new point-to-point speed cameras be linked to unmanned aerial surveillance drones and used to track vehicles of interest to authorities. The first of the cameras, which use automated number plate recognition technology to calculate a car's average speed and whether it is within the legal limit, are due to be switched on by the end of the year." I wonder how much surveillance by drone is already being done in the U.S., especially considering that even an (admittedly high-end) home-built drone is capable of hijinks that seem to parallel the cell-phone tracking activities the FBI has been shown to employ.
I don't get why they want to do this with drones... It seems like a less efficient and more expensive method of tracking compared to the satellites they are using now...
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
get microwave oven
smash glass on door
point into sky
power up and gtfo
Just like bf2 , shoot the suckers
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
The article is about a city in Australia. And the summary asks "already being done in the U.S?"
Want to catch people but do not want to be arsed to actually go out and do the work for it...
FFS, just climb up the top of the parliament house flagpole and you can see the whole state
How does one go from The capital of Australia wants to use drones for traffic to USA must be using drones because hackers can make drones and because the FBI is tracking cell phones without warrants? I don't see the connection!
Just authorize the drones for autonomous kill functionality, this way we can take care of those evil speeders for good!
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." George HW Bush
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
This is already being done except that the police use helicopters and light planes. Ever notice the big white stripes beside or across the road at regular intervals? They time how long it takes a vehicle to go between the marks and calculate the speed. I see no difference between using a drone and a helicopter. They both have pilots and watch for speeders. Just because a drone is higher tech does not make using it bad.
I am truly amazed at just how much Big Brother that the (formerly, and once fiercely) independent Australians are willing to put up with. Virtually no private ownership of guns any more. Non-opt out Internet filtering. Now P2P traffic monitoring. How long before they regulate out of existence the Aussie equivalent of the pit bull - the legendary Australian Cattle Dog?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
... and some commercially-available, affordable anti-aircraft missiles. We'll see your drones and raise you a family-pack of Stingers.
Drones? Really? Canberra already has enough speed cameras everywhere!
There are very specific laws and regulations dealing with where you can and can't fly hobby remote control aircraft, and not just in Australia. A small lightweight aircraft can be deadly. Even a small weight moving quickly can be very dangerous. (Heck a small treebranch fell on me at the local zoo on a windy day about a week ago and the damn thing felt like I'd been clubbed unexpectedly with a baseball bat. Presumably it fell from a good height). Add a propeller and now you have a nice mix master missle coming out of the sky at you. It's not just theoretical. People have been killed by hobby r/c aircraft. People have lost fingers on the ground just starting the things. So you're not permitted to fly above people. Now I grant you these drones will be more sophisticated and presumably have a failsafe should a control signal be lost, but things can and will go wrong. How long before someone is killed or maimed?
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
http://www.davidbrin.com/transparent.htm
Which suggests much the same as you did.
And also see "The light of other days" by others as a sci-fi story with a related theme of cultural transformation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days
In general, it's ironic we will put all these computer resources into surveilling people who we fear are up to no good (like stealing property or escaping from society via drugs) instead of just building robots (and other infrastructure) to make what people want along with providing a basic income so they can purchase such things. Related by me:
http://www.pdfernhout.net/recognizing-irony-is-a-key-to-transcending-militarism.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vK-M_e0JoY
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Irrespective of whether we can trust the AFP, the installation of point-to-point speed cameras which have "relatively low infringement rates" seems like a gross over-reaction to a non-existent problem. The data --crazy I know to look at it when considering emotionally driven issues -- does not bear out the expense http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/D18CA4EA930FF0D2CA25773700169CE5?opendocument
Suggesting that reducing tolerances to increase infringements (in this case, I see no other reason than for revenue) to pay for a system that is not needed is abusive. Will it reduce deaths?
The short of the data is that the ACT has about half the traffic accident-related fatalities of the western world, including those countries noted for above-average driving abilities. Indeed, one might argue that Canberra has the safest roads in the world. It makes one ask the question, what is the target death rate? Zero? As always the last 10% takes 90% of the effort and in this case, I believe, such a low rate can be accepted as part of the inherent risk of driving.
Certainly no such thing is happening!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/06/AR2006080600499.html
45% marginal tax rate. I'm moving.
We have unlimited tax dollars to spend on any kind of shit we can dream up.
Why would the submitter and "editor" assume anyone outside Canberra would have heard of the place and know where it is?
Would it really have bruised nationalist egos to write "Canberra, Australia"?
That goes to show how little you actually know about the "highway" system. A Freeway is a limited access highway. The US has a network of highways called Interstates. They also have US and State highway networks that do not have the access restrictions as an Interstate. Here is a good example of a 2 lane windy hilly highway in the US; Highway 1 in California. It is a rural highway with areas that are populated.
My sister was killed on a section of Highway 3, also called the Southern Trans-Canada Highway. So yes it was a highway and not a US Interstate.
I guess you also have no animals in your state. Run into a deer, elk,moose, bear, etc because you couldn't stop or avoid in time due to high speed is going to hurt a lot. There is a difference between slow, 55mph, and above your sight/reaction range and vehicle capability, 100mph. Most modern cars can cruise at that higher speed.
"... automated number plate recognition technology to calculate a car's average speed ..."
English people get shitty when ignorant yanks plaster 'London, England' all over pictures as if no one knows where London is! How many people in the world don't know that Canberra is the Aussie capitol? How many people in the world aside from the usual retarded niggers, spics and chinks CAN'T name the main cities of Australia? Practically none. Australia is one of the most richest and important countries on earth now. With the USA falling apart the way it is Australia will probably become THE richest and most important nation. So shove your 'No one has ever heard of Canberra' bullshit up your arse and learn to accept that your beloved USA is going down the drain. You stupid fucking morbidly obese seppo cunt.
Yes, drones are a double edge sword, as an Aussie these particular drones don't raise my eyebrow, there are way too many catastrophes involving kids in stolen cars trying to out run the cops. When you get to "get of my lawn" age you'll be able to rattle of at least a few people you know who were killed or maimed on the road, A personal example; My best mates 15yo son was found dead, 5m up a tree, 2 days after one such catastrophe that killed 6 teenagers, and to pre-empt all the armchair parents out there, no, it wasn't "his parent's fault".
With a drone doing the patrolling, the chase is over as soon as it's locked on to the stolen car, expensive resources such as helicopters can stop patrolling and focus on the current hot spots. - More efficient, safer, very slight increase in the chances of a normal driver getting a ticket. I don't have the right to ignore speed limits, so no tangible reductions to my rights. Sure you could make a "boiled frog" argument about rights, but IRL frogs, like kids in stolen cars, will try to get out when things are too uncomfortable.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Very little UAV surveying is done on U.S. soil as it's against FAA regulations to have Drones in most of our airspace due to aviodance regulations. That doesn't mean that border patrols don't use them however... or there aren't any Active ROZ areas for training purposes, but for what your stating ( like watching vehicles and traffic enforcement) it's just not currently being done becauses of the regulations. That being said... I think it would save the tax payer a lot of money if some of these regulations were deconflicted so lets say... something like a scaneagle could linger over a stretch of highway like I-5 for half a day as opposed to other traffic enforcement which costs more and is less effective. We've learned many lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan on highway patrolling with UAV's and I think we should apply them to home.
I knew this was coming, as I thought how easy it would be to do, 5 years ago when the drones were coming out for the police force and being used to track perps.
I knew it would not be long before someone got the idea to use it to track speeders and then be able to send them a nice ticket in the mail for the infraction.
The only problem is that how does the drone write up the report , it doesn't as the guy flying the drone does...the problem is that you need an actual person to hand over a ticket if points are involved, unless there are no points involved and then it does not matter who was driving the car, just that the image taken (where you can not see the driver) is being used to make the police some money. It already is this way here, except only drive by cameras on certain locations of the highway where they take a pic or your plates and then send you your ticket in the mail saying thank you for speeding, come again....
I guess no more worrying about losing points, but get ready to start paying immense amounts of money if you live with the pedal to the metal.
Pew pew pew... take that, drone-boy.
Makes you wonder if you could hit the ISS with an S3 Krypton.
Judging by all of the new and expensive high-tech toys police departments are buying you'd hardly know that the rest of the country is broke.