Spies In The Sky To Become A Reality In New York

AFP Photo / Don Emmert

Two types of unmanned aircraft, drones have been licensed for use by the FAA (Federal Aviation authority). The first commercial drone operation is expected to be running by the end of the summer.

The two unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are the Scan Eagle X200 and Aero Vironment’s PUMA. They both measure around 4 ½ feet long, weighing less than 55 pounds, and have a wing span of ten and nine feet respectively.

Both the Scan Eagle and the PUMA received “restricted category type certificates”which permit aerial surveillance. Prior to the FAA’s decision, the only way the private sector could operate UAS in US airspace was by obtaining an experimental airworthiness certificate which specifically restricts commercial operations. (source)

With the American public already up in arms about the use of the drones to spy on US citizens this is not going to go down well. Documents released under The Freedom Of Information Act show that the US Marshall Service has already experimented with the use of drones for domestic surveillance.

Michael Bloomberg has said that he intends to allow NYPD to use dones and that he feels they will become as widely used as security cameras.

This is the tip of the iceberg. Can you imagine knowing the skies are full of these machines? Never knowing when they are homing in on you or the person next to you?

What checks will be done on the people receiving the images? Will they be zooming in on sunbathing women, or playing children? Maybe wives and husbands could use them to keep a check on their spouses?

How will the images be logged? How long will they be stored? Who will get to see them? Can they be used in court by law enforcement and by citizens or will the system be weighted against the man in the street?

Are the images tamperproof or can they be manipulated to suit the circumstances?

The domestic use of drones has many questions that need to be answered. They won’t be of course. Obama will order it and that will be that.

Just one more erosion of our civil liberties coming at a time when those liberties are diminishing on a daily basis.