UK Police Drones Drone Overhead

The first pilotless police drone has been successfully tested and now, according to the news media, looks set to become a ubiquitous "eye in the sky" spy over Great Britain's crime areas. The 91 centimeter wide unmanned aerial vehicle carries closed circuit TV cameras and can quietly do its surveillance job from as high as 1500 feet for hours at a time. The remote control helicopter has a virtual reality control headset for its operator. He can see (and record) what the spy-in-the-sky can see. Merseyside police were first to launch the remote control helicopter in their quest to simplify tracking criminals and recording antisocial behavior. They will be running a three month trial. The main attraction is that they are very economical to operate in comparison with a helicopter. However experience with balloons and blimps launched to elevate antenna wires has always been that they are too tempting a target for anyone with a gun. Unless the UAV's are bulletproof, the operator will be seeing regular virtual reality crashes. Not everybody agrees with the proposition either. Britain has more CCTV cameras than the rest of Europe combined. In the past week, two police chiefs have voiced their concern over the levels of surveillance.The deputy chief constable of Hampshire police said at the weekend that Britain could face an "Orwellian situation" with cameras on every street corner. He questioned whether the relatively low crime levels justified the expense and intrusion. We're giving this technology a limited chance of long-term widespread adoption. Some technology arrives well before its time and just fades away..