Drones for policing

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3xyrk261wo.amp

I'm really just posting this due to a sense of mind boggle at the world we live in now.

We really are on the cusp of a sci fi fiction world made reality.

Of course, on one level I can see the attraction / advantage of using available technology due to rising crime and budget constraints in areas such as policing. As long as they don't fit tasers to the damn things. Or worse.

Funnily enough I was at a small and peaceful "protest" last year in our town centre, and I and the friend I was with kept wondering where the barked instructions about behaviour were coming from. Initially we thought it was from a speaker in a tree, but no, it was a drone circling the park we were in.

Every time something like this becomes normalised, I wonder what next?

I'm in my 50s, and I think back to my childhood and marvel at how different the world is as technology has progressed, yet many societal problems seem to be further than ever from resolution, not closer, and I do wonder if there's a bit of chicken and egg going on.

Lord only knows how some really elderly people feel about it all - I struggle to "get with the programme" on a practical level and also psychologically as often benefits of all this progress are accompanied by myriad unintended (one would hope) consequences.

So what do others think?

(As for AI, I'm in huge opposition to that, and when I'm thrown the trope of weaving machines and printing presses, I do mention that those articles couldn't talk back and get inside one's head for starters, nor convince one of alternative realities.)

Don’t really see how it differs from using a police helicopter, who they will do if the situation warrants it..(Used to live in Peckham so I know). Will obviously be a lot cheaper and easier to do, so I don’t see the problem.

I'm surprised this wasn't being done already to be honest.

The hill behind our house was on fire a few months ago, and the fire service had a couple of drones up, using thermal imaging to map the fire and check for any people in the vicinity.

Would have thought the police would be using the same tech for keeping track of suspects on the run etc.

I suppose you're right, however police helicopters don't have the capacity to snoop round your garden or hover at your windows.....

Have you got something in your garden you don't want the police to see? If no, don't worry!

I'd rather the police 'snooped' in my garden if it gave them more chance to catch a criminal

Where i live the bastard drones capture images on the highways even if you are just holding your phone, let alone looking at it, while driving. Its £100 each time.

Good. Hopefully they'll start implementing lifetime bans for people who hold their phones while driving. I'd be cheering those drones on.

I think its the thin edge of the wedge. In and of itself it's just one small thing. Coupled with a social system (capitalism) that's taking its last breath, real politics brought in to play with left and right out in force, and the fact that the establishment both stir both pots to cause division and diversion in order to prevent the masses coalescing around economic demands. The EU have several projects where they have been watching domestic terror and protest and as far back as 2008 concluded that the biggest threat to national security and capital is from within.

Of course technology fixes as many issues as it solves. Just as it throws millions into immiseration it can also be used to control those immiserated masses.

Well knowing the police there will be a raft of policy dictating when they can be deployed & hoops to jump through. A lot of information is already captured on
CCTV and Ring doorbells etc so this seems a small step up from that.

@LooneyLiberalSpaceWaster

Thank you for understanding the thrust of my post.

The police are not interested in your hanging baskets or what you are watching on your TV.

I'd welcome a drone in my garden if it needed to be there.

I've binging on Traffic Copsxas background noise while working. They were using drones during chases in 2020! Thermal imaging to find (armed) criminals hiding in gardens etc

I haven’t considered this in any depth but I think the human race in general has difficulty with the concept that just because we can do something, that doesn’t necessarily mean we should do it.

I also think we have completely lost sight of what makes life worth living.

Its difficult not to reach the conclusion that the human race has had its time and we’re very much witness to the beginning of the end.

You may not like ai but it is happening and you still have at least a decade of working life left, let alone retirement time, so you need to find a way to accept it and understand it even if you aren't a fan.

I encounter so many elderly people, through work (and my MIL!) who have allowed themselves to get so out of touch with technology (someone who is 80 now was only 47 when dial up internet started in the UK, so they weren't old then) and high street banks are closing, their is an expectation that if you can't do your own shopping your first adaptation would be home delivery, GPs are going increasingly online, and these people haven't kept up enough to function independently in today's society.

My grandad was born in 1921 and was internet banking before me in the early 2000s before he died at 83.

You've got to roll with the times, and for better or (probably) worse AI is here.

Not “really elderly” 🤣 but at 61 I think it’s an excellent idea.

Resistance is futile eh?

Good excuse to get a dog!

My cats would probably object.....

To be fair your cats would probably do better against Arnie than my dog!

Actually yes, I'd agree my cats are very protective x Boy cat has attachment disorder and has been known to feel people with his teeth if he's on my lap and they get too close x Girl cat can go full banshee when provoked x I'd certainly bet on them in a fight 😁

Bring back the whistle and truncheon, and a clip round the ear, I say.

It's all gone to pot with these new fangled policing methods.

(Oh, and the bring back the birch.)

In the Met they have lost around 120 front offices down to 2. Plus general cuts throughout the UK technology will be increasing.

County forces often only have two officers for vast areas.

Drones in protests are used as material for prosecution where Police numbers are low. They are also used to find criminals, missing persons, suicides in vast areas and on tracks.

For recce purposes where increased CCTV is used by crime gangs. They certainly have their place and I suspect it’ll increase.

Walking along the riverbank to the Miners' Gala this year I saw a couple of coppers sitting on deckchairs in a pleasant field, next to a little van. Their drones were just taking off and the whole scene had the vibe of model aircraft enthusiasts having a Nice Day Out

Drone policing of a crowded event with some potential for minor crime - such as pickpocketing, drunk &disorderly, etc - doesn't really seem like a problem to me. It's fairly transparent, as well as presumably being a relatively cheap and effective way to direct police to the spot where they are needed.

It did seem a bit surreal, though. The combo of futuristic hi-tech with a riverside scene and a deeply traditional event.

We watch Motorway Cops and a few of the other ones and they’ve been using them for ages.

Fun watching when they send one up and you can see that a roof is looking a little warm. Hmmm, wonder what’s happening in that loft. 🤔