Gary at sUAS news has an important story on what looks like the first blanket permission to use sUAS (in this case, a RC multicopter with a camera) by a law enforcement agency in the US:
Mesa County, Colorado— Recently the Sheriff’s Office received notification from the
Federal Aviation Administration of their approval to fly the Unmanned Aerial System
(UAS)—with some restrictions, anywhere in Mesa County. Previously, the FAA had only
approved a one year Certificate Of Authorization (COA) to fly within a one mile area at the
Mesa County Landfill.The UAS equipment tested at the Sheriff’s Office is a Draganflyer X6 model. The
Canadian made X6 is on lease at no charge to the Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the way
in testing UAS for law enforcement purposes. The Sheriff’s Office had submitted their
application for a COA, asking for county-wide approval to fly the Draganflyer, last June.We are one of only a few law enforcement agencies in the Country currently flying UAS
and this marks the largest flight approval for law enforcement to date.Quartermaster Ben Miller, who is one of two Draganflyer pilots for the Sheriff’s Office will
be on hand to fly the Draganflyer and do media interviews at 10 a.m. on Thursday,
February 10th. This media event will be at the Sheriff’s Office front parking lot. We are
doing this onetime event due to all local media inquiring about this new COA.
Comments
When the UK police used such a platform at a demonstration two years ago the very organised protestors made a freedom of information act request for copies of the images that may have contained images of themselves, hundreds of people made that request, that then wiped out the cost savings, or so I understand...
http://www.suasnews.com/2009/08/39/airrobots-quad-used-by-derbyshir...I have seen plenty of images that could not have been taken with a light plane.
I've yet to see an image from a UAV that could not have been taken from a private plane - not to say there isn't (possibly) a new class of images, but really, it seems fair to suggest the difference might be quantitative rather than qualitative (more of the same - rather than some new class of visibility).
It will open up can of worms on privacy issues. Money to be made unless/until the Supreme Court bans their use at some point.
Safety issues have nothing to do with it. There is 100 years of safety data for unmanned aircraft. From pre-WWI stick and tissue to over 100 pound RC planes and helicopters. FPV was in use in WWII. Autonomous aircraft was in the works in the 70's. Nothing new other than the FAA regs and reduction in size and (sometimes) cost.
This really is big news. Every hour of death-free operation moves the facts on the ground. Pretty soon, UAV will be demonstrably safer than manned flight in flight hours per casualty.
Booty? Well they won't be using this to nab any real criminals. Just stealing cars and houses from potheads.
Just another excuse to not want a solution to the drug problem in this country. Too many in Govt making easy money off it.
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