Slashdot Mirror
UK Criminals Use Drones To Case Burglary Prospects
turkeydance writes: Burglars in the UK are sending unmanned drones over houses in order to identify potential targets, police have warned. Suffolk Constabulary confirmed it had received at least one report of drones being used by burglars for surveillance of properties. Paul Ford, secretary of the Police Federation National Detectives Forum, said: “Drones can be noisy and very visible so hopefully criminals risk giving themselves away. If members of the public observe drones being used in areas which make them suspicious they should contact police using the 101 non-emergency number to report it."
And how would the average person immediately link a drone with a burglar and not with some kids playing with their new toy?
Many burglars read the newspaper and look at death notices to search for potential victims. People and maybe their neighbors go to the funeral for 3-4 hours and burglars have free reign in the middle of the day when everyone can see them.
Now drones are all the hype, and people start to shrug when they see yet another drone. There are so many of them. How can you determine that one of them is a burglar looking for opportunities?
I've one time been warned by police officers for a particular kind of grafity on the street. It was secret code where burglars wrote the time when it was best to try to break in. Simply removing the gravity could be help you fight the burglars. Even though it is done in plain sight by people just who just walk around all day to spy on the villagers to help burglars, police can't arrest someone for using some drawing chalk on the streets. We have found a few of those secret codes in our village, and removed them. Another group who was looking for codes had found the one who was chalking the codes and did a not so lawfull intimidation game with him (physical agression, he was guilty for burglarly in popular opinion anyway. That guy could have sued them an won the case, but he was never seen again and maybe went back to his home country or maybe to the next region where people do not work together to fight criminals).
Police can't arrest people for burgarly for simply using a drone. Maybe a warning because they are invading privacy, but that's all. But citizens who are warned can look up for strangers who invade their privacy. Especially when you live in a community where everyone knows each other, a bit of working together can prevent a lot of criminal activities. I know it is not really ok to take the law in your own hands, but I also know that not doing anything and waiting for an underfunded police to solve too many crimes doesn't help safety either.