Wanted "Drone" Poster Artist Discusses How He Punked the NYPD. Www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/12/14 drones bennett/1214_drones_bennett.pdf. EDITORIAL: Drones over America. Big Sis is watching. Aerial surveillance drones designed to protect the nation’s borders and fight terrorists overseas are turning their electronic eyes on Americans here at home. While gathering intelligence on the activities of suspected lawbreakers, Uncle Sam risks invading the privacy of the law-abiding. A bright line must be drawn between surveillance for legitimate law enforcement purposes and illicit spying that violates Americans’ constitutional right to be left alone.
The threat comes from Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security, which is deploying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones, to assist local authorities with airborne surveillance. It’s also doling out millions in grant cash to encourage small-town cops to buy drones, whether they serve a purpose or not. Such tracking made sense when use was confined to keeping tabs on our enemies in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Washington Times. Street Artist Charged with 56 Counts for Punking NYPD with Drone Poster. Street artist Essan Attia is being charged with 56 criminal counts after planting dozens of mock public service posters around New York, advertising the NYPD's use of drones to monitor civilians.
He was arrested in New York last week after being tracked down by an ill-humored police force. Attia's arrest followed on a video interview the artist gave with the arts and culture website Animal New York, in which he described some of his motivations—including his libertarian political leanings—and how he pulled off the stunt: As Reason.com reports: On September 16, 29-year-old “Essam” and a group of friends blanketed lower Manhattan with posters designed to look like official New York Police Department signage. “Drones: Protection When You Least Expect It,” read the slogan below simple ideograms of families running from unmanned aerial vehicles. Photo by Gawker Photo by Marcus Santos / New York Daily News. Markey, Barton: Privacy Protections, Transparency a “Blind Spot” in FAA Oversight of Non-Military Domestic Drones | Congressman Ed Markey, Massachusetts 7th District.
FAA Response to Markey & Barton letter. The DIY Kid-tracking Drone. On school-day mornings, I walk my grade-school-age son 400 meters down the hill to the bus stop. Last winter, I fantasized about sitting at my computer while a camera-equipped drone followed him overhead. So this year, I set out to build one. For the basic airframe, I selected a quadcopter design for its maneuverability and ability to hover. Construction was straightforward: You can buy a quadcopter kit with all the pieces or, as I did, get parts separately and spend more time on system integration. On the mechanical side, there’s a central frame to hold the electronics, spars of aluminum to support the motors and propellers, and legs to cushion the quadcopter’s landing (I made a few extra sets of legs out of foam board for easy replacement).
For the main control board, I chose an ArduPilot Mega, mostly because it integrates everything I needed—the CPU, input/output ports, a three-axis gyroscope and accelerometer, and a barometric altitude sensor. So, did it work? Drones: A Look at the Latest Technology - Interactive Feature. Joint exercise tests UAV sense-and-avoid technology.
The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), a not-for-profit research and development organization and a university completed two weeks of flight testing "sense and avoid" technology that could help unmanned aircraft better integrate into the national air transportation system some day. The MITRE Corporation and the University of North Dakota (UND) developed automatic sense and avoid computer software algorithms that were uploaded onto a NASA Langley Research Center general aviation aircraft, said the group on Oct. 2. The NASA Langley Cirrus SR-22 flew 147 maneuvers during 39 hours of flight tests in airspace near the Grand Forks International Airport. A supporting UND aircraft flew more than 40 hours during the tests, they said.
During the Limited Deployment – Cooperative Airspace Project (LD-CAP) flights the NASA aircraft demonstrated how onboard technology allowed it to sense and avoid a UND Cessna 172 "intruder" plane, flown by a university instructor pilot. Push for more drones in U.S. raises questions. WASHINGTON — The federal government is rushing to open America's skies to tens of thousands of drones — pushed to do so by a law championed by manufacturers of the unmanned aircraft. Yet questions remain about their potential to invade privacy and about their reliability, as two incidents on the U.S.
-Mexico border demonstrate. The drone makers have sought congressional help to speed their entry into a domestic market valued in billions of dollars. The 60-member House of Representatives' “drone caucus” — including the co-chairman, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo — has helped push that agenda. Over the past four years, caucus members have drawn nearly $8 million in drone-related campaign contributions, an investigation by Hearst Newspapers and the Center for Responsive Politics shows. Domestic use of drones began with limited aerial patrols of the nation's borders in 2004 by Customs and Border Patrol authorities.
But their use hasn't been trouble-free. Neither plan has been issued. Put a policy leash on police drones | Editorials. The use and deployment of new law-enforcement technology needs to be grounded in a respect for the legal rights of those they are ultimately intended to help protect. New, dazzling, available and subsidized are not the criteria for police and sheriff departments to start flying drones or taking fingerprints at a traffic stop. Protesters turned up at an informational hearing hosted by the Seattle Police Department to introduce the public to an unmanned-aerial vehicle SPD is eager to use. The camera systems no doubt have their advantages in chasing bad guys, looking for missing persons or surveilling emergencies. The equally logical fear is a slide into a casual application for police activities that might violate personal rights — the unintended consequences of using a system that can go lots of places and see lots of things.
The ACLU even proposes seeking a warrant from a judge before drones are used. Why not? Drones in Texas and Tanks in Tampa: Inside the Out-Of-Control Weaponized Homeland Security State. March 4, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here. At the height of the Occupy Wall Street evictions, it seemed as though some diminutive version of “shock and awe” had stumbled from Baghdad, Iraq, to Oakland, California. American police forces had been “militarized,” many commentators worried, as though the firepower and callous tactics on display were anomalies, surprises bursting upon us from nowhere.
There should have been no surprise. The ubiquitous fantasy of “homeland security,” pushed hard by the federal government in the wake of 9/11, has been widely embraced by the public. But why drone on? All told, the federal government has appropriated about $635 billion, accounting for inflation, for homeland security-related activities and equipment since the 9/11 attacks. University, Police Cooperate On UAS.
Testifies as Congress Takes on Domestic Drones. UDPATE: You can watch the video of the full hearing here. The ACLU testified today before a House field forum examining drone technology and the Fourth Amendment at Rice University called by Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.). Drones have gotten a lot of attention lately – U.S. law enforcement agencies are eager to get their hands on them while civil libertarians are concerned about the potential threat to privacy. The panel for today’s hearing, which was held in conjunction with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, included representatives from across the board, with witnesses from the advocacy, law enforcement, and academic worlds.
Our legislative counsel, Chris Calabrese, explained the ACLU’s concerns regarding the lack of regulations on this quickly-spreading technology (read his complete prepared testimony here). Imagine technology similar to the naked body scanners we are all familiar with from airports attached to a drone. Speaking passionately, Rep. Aero Tech Town. Detroit City Airport has established an industrial R&D cluster to develop the next generation of aircraft, including civilian drones. By Tom Murray and R.J. King Illustration by Jacqui Oakley The Coleman A. Young International Airport on Detroit’s east side has two runways, a passenger terminal, a U.S. Customs facility, several dozen hangars, and an aviation fuel and aircraft service provider.
What it lacks is passenger service — unless someone is taking off in or landing a private jet. No matter. Even though Detroit leadership looked to privatize the 263-acre city-owned airport in a bid to shore up more than $200 million in the current overall municipal debt, the proposal didn’t go far. Besides Rimanelli, others also see the potential the airport has to offer. “What we have is an underutilized asset, which spells opportunity,” says Jason Watt, director of Detroit City Airport.
Airports Invest in Upgrades / Click Here In addition, the military and private industry use Lake St.