Governments Using Drones Designed for Military Use Against Its Citizens in Significant Expansion of Covert State Surveillance

High Tech Spy Drones

Our study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan from 2004 to the present have killed between 830 and 1,210 individuals, of whom around 550 to 850 were described as militants in reliable press accounts, about two-thirds of the total on average. Thus, the true civilian fatality rate since 2004 according to our analysis is approximately 32 percent. - Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, The Year of the Drone: An Analysis of U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan, 2004-2010, Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative Policy Paper, February 24, 2010

November 10, 2010

Locust Blog - The Daily Mail reports:

“A new arms race is on and it could change everything from the way we parent to how we get our celebrity gossip. For the technology currently being used by the CIA to ferret out terrorist leaders in the hills of Pakistan is set to arrive in a neighbourhood near you – and there’s nowhere to hide.

“Personal drones – smaller, private versions of the infamous Predator – are the next hot technology for people looking to track celebrities, cheating lovers, or even wildlife. And it could be a dream tool for the paparazzi, named after the Italian for buzzing mosquitoes. Now the metaphor is coming to life.

“Several personal drones are scheduled for completion next year.”

England already has literally thousands of cameras watching people as they move around in public. Flying mini-drones that can chase people around is definitely something new. If they’re used to track down muggers in the Black slums of London, then that would be a plus.

I wonder if anyone in the government surveillance offices ever notices how many crimes are being committed by non-Whites against White victims.

The article continues:

“A police constable in Liverpool tries out the force’s new remote-controlled UAV. Liverpool police have already used such drones to make at least one arrest. The officer can see from the drone’s perspective using a special pair of goggles. Already in the UK police are using drones to track thieves.

“In February, the Air Robot was deployed by Merseyside police after officers lost an alleged car thief who had escaped on foot in thick fog. Using the device’s on-board camera and thermal-imaging technology, the operator was able to pick up the suspect through his body heat and direct foot patrols to his location. It led officers to a 16-year-old youth, who was hiding in bushes alongside the Leeds-Liverpool canal, in Litherland, Merseyside.

“The drone, which measures 3ft between the tips of its four carbon fibre rotor blades, uses unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology originally designed for military reconnaissance. The battery-powered device can have a range of cameras attached to its main body, including CCTV surveillance or thermal imaging cameras.

“It is designed to hover almost silently above crime scenes and send live footage to officers on the ground, but the unit can also ‘perch and stare’ from a solid platform, allowing the operator to capture hours of footage from a hidden vantage point.”

Perhaps the government of England could put the video of these police chases on television so ordinary Brits can get a realistic idea of who’s committing all the crime in their brand new Diverse society.

After about two years of watching Africans and Jamaicans snatcing purses, beating up elderly White people and stealing everything that’s not nailed down, perhaps the White people of Britain will stop supporting the Labor and Conservative parties and start switching over to the British Nationalist Party so they can finally do something about the serious racial problems that are growing worse every year.

Spy Drones Will Monitor U.K. Citizens

January 23, 2010

United Press International - Camera-equipped drones, developed by the British military for use in war, will be used in England to keep an eye on civilians from the sky, officials say.

Police in Kent and Essex counties plan to start using them in 2012 for routine monitoring of motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and illegal dumping, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

Collaboration between the police departments and BAE Systems, maker of the drones, began in 2007, the Telegraph said.

A prototype for police use is expected to fly this year. Its high-resolution cameras can capture images from 20,000 feet.

"Fully autonomous unmanned air systems could be routinely used by border agencies, the police and other government bodies," BAE spokesman Andrew Mellors said.

Unlike manned police helicopters, which can fly for only a few hours, the drones can remain aloft for up to 15 hours, the Telegraph reported.

"These systems will be fully autonomous so that operators task the vehicles and receive the relevant imagery and intelligence direct to the ground control station in real time," Mellors said.

CCTV in the Sky: Police Plan to Use Spy Drones

Arms manufacturer BAE Systems developing national strategy with consortium of government agencies

January 22, 2010

Guardian - Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and that officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year.

The Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates UK airspace, has been told by BAE and Kent police that civilian UAVs would "greatly extend" the government's surveillance capacity and "revolutionise policing". The CAA is currently reluctant to license UAVs in normal airspace because of the risk of collisions with other aircraft, but adequate "sense and avoid" systems for drones are only a few years away.

Five other police forces have signed up to the scheme, which is considered a pilot preceding the countrywide adoption of the technology for "surveillance, monitoring and evidence gathering". The partnership's stated mission is to introduce drones "into the routine work of the police, border authorities and other government agencies" across the UK.

Concerned about the slow pace of progress of licensing issues, Kent police's assistant chief constable, Allyn Thomas, wrote to the CAA last March arguing that military drones would be useful "in the policing of major events, whether they be protests or the ­Olympics". He said interest in their use in the UK had "developed after the terrorist attack in Mumbai".

Stressing that he was not seeking to interfere with the regulatory process, Thomas pointed out that there was "rather more urgency in the work since Mumbai and we have a clear deadline of the 2012 Olympics".