The New York City police department plans to pilot the unmanned aircrafts in response to complaints about large gatherings, including private events, over Labor Day weekend, officials announced Thursday.
“If a caller states there’s a large crowd, a large party in a backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party,” Kaz Daughtry, the assistant NYPD Commissioner, said at a press conference.
The plan drew immediate backlash from privacy and civil liberties advocates, raising questions about whether such drone use violated existing laws for police surveillance.
“It’s a troubling announcement and it flies in the face of the POST Act,” said Daniel Schwarz, a privacy and technology strategist at the New York Civil Liberties Union, referring to a 2020 city law that requires the NYPD to disclose its surveillance tactics. “Deploying drones in this way is a sci-fi inspired scenario.”
I’m not from US - why is it forbidden to have a large group of people in the backyard?
As for the drones - just wow…It’s not forbidden. This is a huge overstep by the police but typical of American police, who are allowed to violate our civil rights with impunity.
Yeah this is nothing compared to shooting people.
Remember when bill of rights?
Land of the not even slightly free.
we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party
Still bitter that they were never invited to any parties in high school and college. Seriously though, they need to back the fuck up. We have an amendment that requires them to get a warrant to spy on us on our own property or in our own house. Civil liberties groups need to stop raising questions and sue the fuck out of the police, judges, Mayor, and legislature. I hope someone knocks those drones out of the air. This kind of shit is infuriating. And no this isn’t a sci-fi scenario, this is a clear and present dystopia.
It’s a police state. 👨🚀🔫👨🚀 It always was.
It doesn’t have to be
Easy fix. Take a picture of the ground, using a drone. Then get a big marquee and have that picture painted on the marquee.
Your party is now invisible.
This was actually done for entire blocks during WWII, specifically in Southern California where aerospace design & mfg companies where located. The covers were painted to look like dirt lots or undeveloped spaces to hide the actual buildings & roads from potential aerial assaults.
Reading comments defending cops for launching drones to surveill people in their homes really boosts my morning faith in humanity.
For people wanting to take down drones, I think a directed energy weapon would work. It uses a beam high frequency radio waves or microwaves to disable electronics. Since there’s no projectile, it would be easier to use without getting caught.
Then you will get the FAA and FCC involved.
Got it.
The inverse square law will ensure that anything you have that’s powerful enough to disable a drone in flight will be at least the size of a semi truck.
Electromagnetic radiation is great for communication, not so much energy transfer.
There are already effective “guns” for jamming drones that are the size of a large rifle.
We can shape EM “beams” – lasers, directional antennas, etc. Inverse square law is far less of a concern for collimated beams.
Yeah my initial response to the dispersal problem is to see if we can’t weaponize Pringles can WiFi into something that can either physically disable the electronics or interrupt communication between the spybot and home base.
Inb4 someone gets charged with assaulting an officer for being impolite to an NYPD robot
I miss the early 2000s WokFi craze – wifi and cheap off-the-shelf solutions are so widespread these days.
I used to “borrow” internet from the library that was 2 miles away. I waterproofed a USB wifi dongle and zip tied it to the feedhorn of an old Direct TV dish. I brought the setup anytime we had a LAN party at a house that didn’t have broadband internet.
The inverse square law only applies to undirected things, because the surface area of a sphere is proportional to the square of radius. The parent specified directed, like a laser.
Unless someone would stumble upon a combination of microwave magnetron that “just so happens” to fit a satellite dish LNC mount. I can neither confirm nor deny that such combinations might exist.
It certainly would seem a very good way to impart… “energy” into all and sundry besides the intended target, and as such horribly dangerous and irresponsible.
The military already uses such devices. They look like bulky sci-fi rifles and are quite man-portable. They aren’t frying the drone, they just need to send a signal stronger than its control signal so the inverse square law works in its favor.
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As long as you don’t use them, sure. They are composed of basic parts, just well adjusted to the purpose. But if you do decide do use them, be aware that you cannot interfere with any radio communications in any way and/or destroy someone’s property. Which does not mean I am against shooting down someone’s drone on your property that is spying you, it’s just not really legal per se.
Sorry what’s the problem with a party?
the way folks in the city throw them, sometimes, there are more problems than party
There’s a book I think everyone should read, and it’s not Nineteen Eighty-Four.
I always think Fahrenheit 451 is more appropriate. They’re all about banning books after all.
America in general, yes; but I thought NY was one of the nice places?
NYPD is one of the most corrupt organizations on the planet.
i hope they can be dazzled/jammed in a way that is not illegal. just have bright lamps pointing up or something
Or slingshot it, then claim you thought it was a perv and not a cop drone because they have no discernable markings from so far up.
Just FYI, interfering with any drone, even a hobbyist drone flown by a perv spying on you, is a VERY serious crime. The FAA doesn’t fuck around with that, because drones are considered aircraft under their jurisdiction. They’ll go after you as hard as they would if you took down a fully-occupied 747.
More often than not, you’ll get in worse trouble for interfering with a drone than the pilot will for whatever crimes they may be committing with it. It’s not worth it. Your best bet is to just report it and go inside.
I like this one, it’s difficult to blame anyone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIOh9-RoAaE
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=NIOh9-RoAaE
https://piped.video/watch?v=NIOh9-RoAaE
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
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I think the probability of the cops catching you using a net launcher is too high.
I think a diy directional emp would be a better choice. https://techlinkcenter.org/news/heres-the-armys-now-patented-emp-rifle-attachment-for-taking-out-small-drones#!
For the more technically inclined, I would imagine something like a software defined radio with a powerful transmitter could take control of the drone and go park it in the Hudson.
I’m pretty sure all of these options are highly illegal. So this is just for informational purposes only. :)
How is this the bottom comment right now?
Every day I thank god I live down here in Florida and not that shithole up north
