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Drone Surveillance in Your Backyard? LAPD Has No Plans to Use Unmanned Aircraft ... Yet

Categories: Police

lapd helicopter.JPG
So cops can now fly unmanned aircraft known as drones, which could be used to peek into your backyard and maybe even into your window at night.

So will the LAPD, a pioneer in the use of helicopters for law enforcement, soon be buzzing drones over your house as you smoke your favorite herb and become paranoid with fear?

Not likely, cops tell us:


The department doesn't really the see the advantage of using unmanned aircraft and has no plans to test them out, at least for now.

In fact, the LAPD's biggest concern, as it has been in the past, is having its manned helicopter units collide with drones.

lapd helicopter gun.JPG
LAPD

But you can chillax.

The man in charge of the LAPD's Air Support Division, Capt. William D. Sutton, told us the department doesn't yet see much advantage in using drones. He thinks their safety record isn't satisfactory yet:

Back east a department had purchased one and lost control of it. It flew into a vehicle. We're going to see how it goes.

The FAA this week said that police departments could test out surveillance drones as long as they're lighter than 4.4 pounds and fly below a 400 foot ceiling.

Given the city's budget constraints, the LAPD is no hurry to buy drones, even if the drone-making capital of the nation is right here in Southern California. Sutton:

Probably 20 years from now you'll see all sorts of those things int he airspace. But it's not like we have a lot of money to throw around.

He admits, however, that "it could be the wave of the future."

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]


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8 comments
Cathy Scott
Cathy Scott

"Yet" is use too many times. In other articles, LAPD is upset with Real Estate companies using drones in So Cal.  In the Washington Times, there is an article about the hoops the FAA is currently jumping through to make way for drones.  Privacy is a thing of the past.

Krush Elliot
Krush Elliot

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Jfox
Jfox

just a note on the FAA ruling...as of now it specifies that "drones" (unmanned aerial vehicles) are to be flown only during day light hours. Also can not be within 5 miles of an airport.

Krush Elliot
Krush Elliot

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Ricochet Rabbit
Ricochet Rabbit

So, they aren't using Predator to hunt down the Whistle-blowing G-man running for his life in the Verdugo Mts???  Run, Stephen Ivens. Run! 

Kjcarter137
Kjcarter137 like.author.displayName 1 Like

Whistle-blowing G-man about to take it in the shorts??FBI Agent Fleeing Massive Manhunt Warns “They’re All Insane” A bizarre Foreign Ministry report circulating in the Kremlin today states that this Friday past (11 May) Russian Envoy Vladimir Vinokurov, the Consulate General of San Francisco, was approached near his hotel room during a visit to Los Angles by an agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indentifying himself as Stephen Ivens [photo top left] who warned that he and a former FBI agent named Donald Sachtleben had uncovered evidence of an impending terror attack on US soil stating that those behind the attack were “all insane.”Before Ivens was able to finish his “message,” this report says, the three American Diplomatic Security (DS) agents, who trail all Russian diplomats in the US, began to “surge” towards Ivens causing him to flee.According to US news sources, Special Agent Ivens, after leaving downtown Los Angeles, returned to his home in Burbank whereupon he then fled into the rugged Verdugo Mountains after which a massive manhunt for him ensued involving 100 FBI agents, 40 sheriff's department rescuers and a dozen local police officers.FBI officials stated to the local media that Ivens was “distraught” and “might be suicidal” adding that they believed he had in his possession his service weapon. At no time, however, did anyone ever state as to why Ivens would be in such a state.According to other US news sources, Special Agent Ivens graduated from Braintree High School in Massachusetts 18 years ago and was selected by his fellow students as “shyest” in his class. He was further described by FBI colleagues as well liked, a devoted agent with no history of disciplinary action on the job, and according to FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller “Married with a one-year-old child, he has been working for the FBI for the past three years in the national security area. Prior to that, he worked as a Los Angeles police officer for eight years.”Late yesterday, after the massive manhunt failed to find any trace of Ivens, his wife Thea Ivens issued an urgent public appeal stating: “Steve, if you are out there listening right now, your wife wants to let you know, 'Babe, we are in this together for better or for worse. I love you, no matter what happens.' Your child wants you to know, 'Daddy’s work? Daddy home?’”Even more bizarre about this case, this report continues, is that the retired FBI agent named Donald Sachtleben mentioned by Ivens, who also knew about this impending “plot,” was arrested within hours of Ivens disappearing and charged with trading child pornography.Most important to note about Sachtleben was, aside from his being an over 25-year veteran of the FBI, he was a special agent bomb technician before retiring in 2008 who specialized in counterterrorism and bombing investigations and whose most important case was the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York City.According to US news reports about Sachtleben’s arrest, this most knowledgeable of FBI agents openly traded child porn using the e-mail address ‘pedodave69@yahoo.com’ in an act so stupid for one of the United States most highly trained intelligence agents it defies belief.The practice of US intelligence services charging their most feared dissidents with child pornography and/or sex charges is well known, with the most celebrated case being against the former UN weapons inspector William Scott Ritter, Jr. who warned about the lies being told to the American people in the run-up to the Iraq War only to find himself sent to prison on trumped up charges involving a minor girl.To exactly what kind of false flag plot Agents Ivens and Sachtleben had uncovered this report doesn’t say, other than to note that the credibility of this information should not be dismissed due to how fast and hard US intelligence agencies are acting to cover their tracks should any additional information come forth.

timfromla
timfromla

Wow, the wave of the future. Like the one in Fukushima?

Teame Zazzu
Teame Zazzu

So we can assume they are WAY behind the times compared to cities like Philadelphia and Cincinnati which both had HAWKEYE systems in use in the air over them since 2007, a Wide Area Persistent Surveillance camera (Gorgon Stare or ARGUS) These sensors are the same which are being used on Reaper drones inside the USA today. These systems record the entire downtown area to pedestrian quality and use automatic object tracking to log and database everyone’s movements. It is simply disingenuous to imply the police would even need another drone when they have W.A.P.S. in use over US cities…. learn for yourself - search terms: persistent surveillance and look in the law enforcement section, persistics, ARGUS, GORGON STARE, BLUE DEVIL

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