The New York City police department plans to pilot the unmanned aircrafts in response to complaints about large gatherings, including private events, over Labor Day weekend, officials announced Thursday.
“If a caller states there’s a large crowd, a large party in a backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party,” Kaz Daughtry, the assistant NYPD Commissioner, said at a press conference.
The plan drew immediate backlash from privacy and civil liberties advocates, raising questions about whether such drone use violated existing laws for police surveillance.
“It’s a troubling announcement and it flies in the face of the POST Act,” said Daniel Schwarz, a privacy and technology strategist at the New York Civil Liberties Union, referring to a 2020 city law that requires the NYPD to disclose its surveillance tactics. “Deploying drones in this way is a sci-fi inspired scenario.”
It becomes illegal when there are too many people there, or there is violence, underage drinking, drug usage, and if it's too loud, the attendees are parking in the street blocking traffic, fire risks all sorts of shit
They totally won't use this to perv on girls sunning themselves on their private property. They have already been busted multiple times perving on girls walking in midtown but they would never do anything like that again and again and again.
So I've installed and operated PTZ cameras for multiple television shows and events, sometimes with junior operators - or just production assistants or other crew. These are in places where people know cameras are present. I can guarantee it doesn't take long for people at the camera control unit to learn they can zoom in on people's phones on set or follow girls around - and these are all professional people.
Cops with a drone that can zoom in on people unwittingly, in their back yards?! Oh, they are certainly going to do shit like this, or worse - they'll likely record for themselves.
Any excuse to use surveillance cameras to spy on people will be used. It's not forbidden to have a party, but the shithead cops want to spy on people anyway just in case they might catch them breaking some laws.
There is also a nationwide program being implemented to feed the video from private security cameras into police surveillance systems. It's called FUSUS and they use equipment installed in private networks to upload the private security cameras' video to the police surveillance systems. Lots of people are signing on to this horrific program - businesses, schools, churches, community centers, etc. The police can use it to track people with video surveillance without a warrant. Security cameras anywhere you go could be potentially tapped into by government authorities to monitor you. It's already all over the USA and being rolled out in the UK now too.
Just as it is in the UK with their surveillance cameras everywhere, this is the future that George Orwell tried to warn us about.
we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party
Still bitter that they were never invited to any parties in high school and college. Seriously though, they need to back the fuck up. We have an amendment that requires them to get a warrant to spy on us on our own property or in our own house. Civil liberties groups need to stop raising questions and sue the fuck out of the police, judges, Mayor, and legislature. I hope someone knocks those drones out of the air. This kind of shit is infuriating. And no this isn't a sci-fi scenario, this is a clear and present dystopia.
If you have a party big and crazy enough to justify airborne surveillance, the police will be able to figure it out just by showing up at your door. No drones are needed.
That being said, NYC has been flying helicopters for decades, so really nothing new privacy wise other than the size of the aircraft and the fact that "drone" invokes fears that drive clicks.
They would not launch a helicopter to confirm a large scale party.
But even still, so they use a drone and they do confirm a large scale party, then what? They have to deploy the police to the house anyhow. Isn't better to have police just out patrolling and visiting these complaints? Then at least they look like they are doing something for the community.
For people wanting to take down drones, I think a directed energy weapon would work. It uses a beam high frequency radio waves or microwaves to disable electronics. Since there's no projectile, it would be easier to use without getting caught.
The inverse square law will ensure that anything you have that's powerful enough to disable a drone in flight will be at least the size of a semi truck.
Electromagnetic radiation is great for communication, not so much energy transfer.
The military already uses such devices. They look like bulky sci-fi rifles and are quite man-portable.
They aren't frying the drone, they just need to send a signal stronger than its control signal so the inverse square law works in its favor.
Unless someone would stumble upon a combination of microwave magnetron that "just so happens" to fit a satellite dish LNC mount.
I can neither confirm nor deny that such combinations might exist.
It certainly would seem a very good way to impart... "energy" into all and sundry besides the intended target, and as such horribly dangerous and irresponsible.
The inverse square law only applies to undirected things, because the surface area of a sphere is proportional to the square of radius. The parent specified directed, like a laser.
This was actually done for entire blocks during WWII, specifically in Southern California where aerospace design & mfg companies where located. The covers were painted to look like dirt lots or undeveloped spaces to hide the actual buildings & roads from potential aerial assaults.
I wouldn't risk life in prison to find out, they might just call the drone a helicopter to arrest you
Edit: To be clear, fuck the police and their spy toys. I just don't wanna get caught doing something that will ruin my life, and I hope it doesn't happen to anyone else.
Better: We will train the america (i think it's a bald eagle) eagle to take down a drone. The FAA can't do shit, the cops can't (legally) do shit about the eagle and the drone will at worst sustain some damage.
Breaking federal laws doesn't sound like a good way to do anything but go straight to federal prison. The FAA laws on shooting down aircraft are pretty serious.
I be establishing an anti drone firing squad in NYC. We will shoot down any law enforcement drones we find. Fuck the NYPD. fuck the mayor. If your drone flies over my property in NYC it will be shot lol.
Just FYI, interfering with any drone, even a hobbyist drone flown by a perv spying on you, is a VERY serious crime. The FAA doesn't fuck around with that, because drones are considered aircraft under their jurisdiction. They'll go after you as hard as they would if you took down a fully-occupied 747.
More often than not, you'll get in worse trouble for interfering with a drone than the pilot will for whatever crimes they may be committing with it. It's not worth it. Your best bet is to just report it and go inside.
A helicopter is very obvious when it's nearby, a drone is far less so. One could be watching you right now and you probably wouldn't know unless you were looking for it.
The definitional boundary is where navigable airspace begins. You do own the non-navigable airspace above your property and you would have a trespassing argument if a drone entered that area without your permission. Where exactly the boundary is between navigable and non is a bit fuzzy but generally it will be at the highest object in the property eg. a treetop.
I still wouldn't mess with the drone though, as another commenter said interfering with an aircraft of any type is a very serious crime.