Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/04/own-a-drone-law-enforcement-w.html
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Shooting into the sky. What could possibly go wrong?
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I hear from 'ya from a law enforcement perspective but, if I hear or see your drone invading my private space with noise and camera rolling say in a National Park, I will shoot it down.
Or throw rocks at it.
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A guy I know from childhood flies helicopters for the National Guard. Two different times drones have interfered with his flying for disaster relief efforts. Once was during a forest fire and once was after a hurricane slammed a densely populated urban area. In both cases there were multiple civilian drones up in the air taking pictures and video.
I’m sure the legislation does a poor job, and neither situation described above will be improved by police shooting in the air. But I do believe this is a problem we need to address.
I also hate the idea of drones violating my family’s privacy. On the other hand, I’m not going to shoot in the air and I don’t want police shooting in the air near me, either. In any case, I don’t believe in passing laws to solve hypothetical problems, and so far this invasion of privacy is purely hypothetical for us.
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this feels like another blow to our ability as private citizens to document our
worldthe police
I’m all for law enforcement being able to take down dangerous drones (does there even need to be a law for that?), even if shooting them is problematic, but let’s face it, what this means in practice is cops opening fire on any drone they think is filming them (and coming up with a justification later).
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“disrupt,” “exercise control,” or “seize or otherwise confiscate”
Where do they say anything about shooting them down? Is that just hyperbole in the defense of something you know is a nuisance? The right to privacy is of less concern to me than the noise pollution, and the potential for accidents. Those things are silly toys that bother everyone who isn’t flying them. Find something better to do.
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Holy shit that’s a Dominator from Psycho-Pass!
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What are they going to shoot them with?
Assuming that the drone isn’t in their face (and fair game), a handgun won’t do it. A shotgun might, but I doubt police shotguns are loaded with anything like birdshot.
These bad boys will be rare:
(Not really that scary. Those “gun barrels” are plastic covers over yagi antennas. It jams wi-fi and GPS frequencies, which will cause most drones to land.)
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Stop throwing them!
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From my cold, dead hands.
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In Mayberry it might just be a live Eagle tied to a string.
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Immediate video cease: immediately ceases video transmission back to the drone operator
Bullshytt claim. If the operator isn’t in the transmission cone, that’s not going to happen.
433MHz (433.05 ~ 434.79 MHz)
915MHz (Option 1 - 902 ~ 928MHz) (Option 2 - 915 ~ 928MHz)
(optional) GNSS L2 (1227 ~ 1251) & GNSS L1 (1575 ~ 1605)
2.4GHz ISM (2400 ~ 2483.5GHz)
5.8GHz ISM (5725 ~ 5850GHz)
Highly illegal frequencies for civilian agencies to jam, but I guess that doesn’t matter any more.
The fun part will be the unintended consequences of knocking out wifi, Bluetooth, GPS in a big long cone if “fired” horizontally in an urban area. (Like those self-driving vehicles suddenly won’t.)
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Since when have cops not been allowed to shoot at stuff?
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Portal gun.
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Did you read the part of their page saying who it can’t be sold to?
In case you were wondering: Yes, they are already allowed to shoot you down.
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