Bladerunner: Brought to us by Homeland Security

[pscot]

I'll bet they could equip this with tasers.



CONROE, Texas) -- A local police force north of Houston is about to become the first in Texas and one of the first in the nation to deploy an unmanned drone for police work, and this one could someday carry weapons.

It's called the "ShadowHawk" remote controlled helicopter and police brag that people on the ground can barely hear it when it's flying at ideal altitudes.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in Conroe paid $300,000 in federal homeland security grant money and Friday it received the ShadowHawk unmanned helicopter made by Vanguard Defense Industries of Spring.

A laptop computer is used to control the 50-pound unmanned chopper, and a game-like console is used to aim and zoom a powerful camera and infrared heat-seeking device mounted on the front.
http://www.examiner.com/page-one-in-houston/first-unmanned-police-drone-texas-set-to-launch-north-of-houston

[Vincardog]

1. I wonder how it will stand up to a 30/6

[formercia]

7. +1

or a 338 Lapua....

[tk2kewl]

9. have you ever read Ecotopia?

A projectile with some wire trailing behind it ought to bring it down

[formercia]

12. Now, Now

Can't be giving people ideas. :evilgrin:

It's like one of the target drones used for Stinger training.

[TalkingDog]

14. Or even a spud gun.....

with some ball bearings secreted in the potato.

Or a pumpkin trebuchet...

I'm beginning to find this idea intriguing.

[DainBramaged]

16. i THINK YOU'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER GUN

[RKP5637]

2. Who needs prisons when the entire population is becoming imprisoned. n/t

[Gregorian]

3. Another counterproductive toy.

As an engineer, I'm ashamed of many engineers. Engineers without conscience!

edit- OK, this is weird. I'm actually wearing my Bladerunner t-shirt as I type! :)

[pscot]

11. Hannah Arendt called it

the banality of evil. Your comment reminds me of a line from Lear; "If it be mans' work, I'll do it." Said by the trooper who goes off to murder Cordelia in her cell. We're an adaptable species. There's pretty much nothing we won't do to one another.

[Riftaxe]

21. I know, they even have police officers driving around in

patrol cars and on bikes, all way to much. They should be sequestered in closets until needed. :sarcasm:

[AsahinaKimi]

4. Has anyone used the term "Domestic Drone" yet?

Isn't that what this is?

[RKP5637]

5. Definitely is. Where is it all ending. I can just imagine, and it begs the question

who is watching whom. Anymore, many of these police outfits need more surveillance on them than those being watched.

[ragemage]

6. Just an expensive toy

Just a larger version of the RC helicopters that are commercially available. Maybe we should put a few of our own RC copters/planes in the air over demonstrations so we have our own record of what actually happens. Why should the police have all the fun with the toys?

[Gregorian]

8. I'm sure the FAA is on our side.

I can only bet that as soon as we tried something like that the FAA would sound off. And of course they'd be in our favor. Because it's of the people, by the people, for the people. NOT.

[formercia]

10. Need an FAA permit to operate something that size I believe.

especially over a crowd of people.

[MedicalAdmin]

13. Use a potato gun / mortar

to fire bags of flour up into the sky where it will disperse and suspend. If that thing flies into a cloud of grain dust - WOOF!

[TalkingDog]

15. You beat me to it.... Great minds ride in the same truck

n/t

[MedicalAdmin]

22. Plus it's all legal components.

Tape, cans, some lighter fluid. And bags of flour.

Easy peasy.

And if anyone has ever seen what a spark can do with a grain dust cloud, well, it's impressive and completely safe until it is suspended in the air. All it takes is one spark...

[Robb]

17. "People on the ground can barely hear it when it's flying at ideal altitudes"

Not according to the videos I've seen. It's really, really loud.

[Blue Owl]

18. Somewhere Rutger Hauer is sweating

n/t

[sarcasmo]

19. Scary!

[5X]

20. radio jamming could also bring it down. n/t