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Spy Drones and Building Projections Used in U.K. to Maintain Order

by Amar Toor on January 30, 2010 at 04:30 PM

If you thought the U.S. was turning into a police state, just count your 50 lucky stars you don't live in the U.K. where, according to The Guardian, civilian police forces are planning on employing military-like unmanned drones to keep aerial tabs on "antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves(?) and fly-tippers(??)." The Guardian managed to get their hands on documents outlining the proposed partnership between Kent police and BAE Systems, the same company that manufactures spy drones used in equally hostile territories, like Afghanistan.

Before police forces can get their hands on the planes, though, they'll have to get the seal of approval of the UK's Civilian Aviation Authority, which is skeptical because of the risk of one of the drones running into other planes in the sky. So-called "sense and void" drone technology, though, is already in the pipeline for development, and police are hoping to have the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) up and spying running by the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

While several British police squads are stepping up their surveillance game to prevent crime before it happens, police in the city of Southampton are considering a bizarre new way to hunt down criminals after they've broken the law. As The Daily Mail reports, Hampshire police are planning on projecting giant images of convicted criminals and missing children onto the facades of the city's historic monuments in an attempt to enhance engagement with the public. The "America's Most Wanted" meets drive-in theatre initiative is, according to Chief Inspector Alison Scott, simply "about communication with as many people as possible."

On the one hand, you've got a top-down, nationwide monitoring system, aimed at not only enhancing surveillance capabilities, but deterring crime on the strength of its invisible presence. On the other, there's a local, grassroots-type project, aimed at fighting crime using relatively simplistic technology to raise community awareness. Beaming images of wanted criminals on historic monuments is certainly not as menacing as hovering spycraft, but it still allows police to perpetuate widespread fear from behind a cloak of anonymity. We realize that times have changed, and peace-keeping means and techniques have to keep up. But we'd like to think there's a way to protect without resorting to wartime weaponry or turning centuries-old buildings into felony ViewMasters. [From: The Guardian and Daily Mail]

Tags: crime, criminals, drones, england, olympics, surveillance, uk

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