Police drones over US cities

[UltraBudgie]

They're currently privately held, with funding through series E totalling about half a billion, but Skydio seems like a hot IPO pick in coming years:

Skydio is a premium drone manufacture with a mission to:

…make the world more productive, creative, and safe with autonomous flight.

The company uses autonomous aircraft vehicles to empower creators, governments, and engineers to produce high-quality videos and 3D scanning for endless applicability.

All design, software development, and drone manufacturing are done in the United States, securing the supply chain and making the company a reliable partner of the U.S. government.

https://accessipos.com/skydio-stock-ipo/

They've really ramped things up this year, thanks to an FAA waiver that changed the previous rules that drones could only be operated by police and security forces if kept in line-of-sight. This rule change has "opened the floodgates", and there is now a buying spree:

According to my research almost every large American city has signed a contract with Skydio in the last 18 months, including Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, Cleveland and Jacksonville. Skydio drones were recently used by city police departments to gather information at the ‘No Kings’ protests and were also used by Yale to spy on the anti-genocide protest camp set up by students at the university last year.

In Miami, Skydio drones are being used to spy on spring breakers, and in Atlanta the company has partnered with the Atlanta Police Foundation to install a permanent drone station within the massive new Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. Detroit recently spent nearly $300,000 on fourteen Skydio drones according to a city procurement report. Last month ICE bought an X10D Skydio drone, which automatically tracks and pursues a target. US Customs and Border Protection has bought thirty-three of the same drones since July.

The AI system behind Skydio drones is powered by Nvidia chips and enables their operation without a human user. The drones have thermal imaging cameras and can operate in places where GPS doesn’t work, so-called ‘GPS-denied environments.’ They also reconstruct buildings and other infrastructure in 3D and can fly at more than 30 miles per hour.

https://www.donotpanic.news/p/the-ai-dro...urveilling

The new paradigm is DRF: "Drones as First Responders". In the above video Cincinnati hopes to have 90% city-wide coverage by the end of the year.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/skydio_ci...26144-QeMn



Here is a DHS technote on the program:



https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/..._dfrtn.pdf (2 page PDF)

Looks like business is booming! Drug dealers and privacy advocates will worry about a "police state", but isn't this simply an example of technology inevitably leading the way to the future? What do you think?

[David64]

 Drug dealers and privacy advocates will worry about a "police state"

Legally speaking, they're not doing anything wrong. You or I can walk down the street taking pictures or video of anything in the public view. As long as they're not peeking in someone's windows or otherwise taking video of something that could legally be called private, such as flying over your house and filming a fenced area that is not in public view, they're in the clear.

[UltraBudgie]

Legally speaking, they're not doing anything wrong. You or I can walk down the street taking pictures or video of anything in the public view. As long as they're not peeking in someone's windows or otherwise taking video of something that could legally be called private, such as flying over your house and filming a fenced area that is not in public view, they're in the clear.

Where people start getting paranoid is when—and this will inevitably happen—the sensor payload on these drones begin to include other existing technologies like license plate and mobile phone IMEI scanners. Now, this data is of course already collected and aggregated by private companies, but now police and federal security agencies will be doing it directly, instead of buying access from the private sector.

It's a cost savings I guess!

[andy06shake]

They're currently privately held, with funding through series E totalling about half a billion, but Skydio seems like a hot IPO pick in coming years:

https://accessipos.com/skydio-stock-ipo/

They've really ramped things up this year, thanks to an FAA waiver that changed the previous rules that drones could only be operated by police and security forces if kept in line-of-sight. This rule change has "opened the floodgates", and there is now a buying spree:

https://www.donotpanic.news/p/the-ai-dro...urveilling

The new paradigm is DRF: "Drones as First Responders". In the above video Cincinnati hopes to have 90% city-wide coverage by the end of the year.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/skydio_ci...26144-QeMn
[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uesij-5HCN8]

Here is a DHS technote on the program:

[Image: https://denyignorance.com/uploader/image...-47-43.png]

https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/..._dfrtn.pdf (2 page PDF)

Looks like business is booming! Drug dealers and privacy advocates will worry about a "police state", but isn't this simply an example of technology inevitably leading the way to the future? What do you think?

I think the technology for drones and surveillance exists, and ignoring its potential would be somewhat shortsighted.
 
Refusing to utilise them risks falling behind, as other nations or organisations inevitably harness their capabilities.
 
It seems to me the challenge lies not in rejecting the technology, but in shaping its deployment wisely.

So that it serves the public good.
 
Will they be used for nefarious purposes?

Possibly.

But just like any other tool, the purpose to which they are set will denote benevolence or malevolence.

[BeTheGoddess]

I think the technology for drones and surveillance exists, and ignoring its potential would be somewhat shortsighted.
 
Refusing to utilise them risks falling behind, as other nations or organisations inevitably harness their capabilities.
 
It seems to me the challenge lies not in rejecting the technology, but in shaping its deployment wisely.

So that it serves the public good.
 
Will they be used for nefarious purposes?

Possibly.

But just like any other tool, the purpose to which they are set will denote benevolence or malevolence.

It needs to be regulated, some rich boy over the road can fly drones over the beach and some have been charged for being pervs.

and dont get me started on the cops drones, they are using them to move drugs. The average junky cant afford a drone, but the cops can and those scum are the ones moving the most product.

The only solution is biological weapons.

Fucks want drones, I want anthrax.