samwise
Well-Known Member
According to a report in the Guardian, plans are well advanced to introduce miltary style unmanned "spy in the sky " drones in the UK to extend CCTV coverage that could include monitoring shipping and marine traffic.
A Home Office back partnership that includes Kent Police is working with BAE Systems on a programme to use these UAVs ( Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) that are already in use in Afghanistan, to expand CCTV coverage and possibly to have it up and running ( no pun intended) by the 2012 Olympics.
In order to sell the idea of the scheme, Kent Police has said that the drones were originally intended for use over the Channel to monitor shipping and detect illegal immigrants, but documents obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act, suggest that the maritime link was a public relations strategy to deflect civil liberties concerns and avoid the "Big Brother " label that will inevitably be attached to such a scheme.
A number of police organisations, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, the Maritime and Fisheries Agency, HMRC and the UK Border Agency have already drawn up a wider list of potential uses including detection of theft from cash machines, antisocial driving , road and railway monitoring and search and rescue. Local councils could also use the system to catch fly tippers and spot abandoned vehicles. However, there are no indications that the marine surveillance element has been abandoned.
The cost is likely to be high and the consortium is already talking about selling any "downtime" for the UAVs to private organisations for use in commercial work. Officers have also mentioned the possibility of selling some of the surveillance data to the private sector.
According to the report, the Civil Aviation Authority is not happy about these things operating in their airspace and are saying that it is unlikely that neither of the two UAVs currently availablle could meet CAA requirements before 2015 at the earliest. However, an airship type model currently under development is subject to different regulations and could be deployed earlier.
So, not only to we have to look out for balacalavered chaps with guns in black RIBs but also to keep an eye on the sky. George Orwell was right -- he just got the date wrong!
A Home Office back partnership that includes Kent Police is working with BAE Systems on a programme to use these UAVs ( Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) that are already in use in Afghanistan, to expand CCTV coverage and possibly to have it up and running ( no pun intended) by the 2012 Olympics.
In order to sell the idea of the scheme, Kent Police has said that the drones were originally intended for use over the Channel to monitor shipping and detect illegal immigrants, but documents obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act, suggest that the maritime link was a public relations strategy to deflect civil liberties concerns and avoid the "Big Brother " label that will inevitably be attached to such a scheme.
A number of police organisations, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, the Maritime and Fisheries Agency, HMRC and the UK Border Agency have already drawn up a wider list of potential uses including detection of theft from cash machines, antisocial driving , road and railway monitoring and search and rescue. Local councils could also use the system to catch fly tippers and spot abandoned vehicles. However, there are no indications that the marine surveillance element has been abandoned.
The cost is likely to be high and the consortium is already talking about selling any "downtime" for the UAVs to private organisations for use in commercial work. Officers have also mentioned the possibility of selling some of the surveillance data to the private sector.
According to the report, the Civil Aviation Authority is not happy about these things operating in their airspace and are saying that it is unlikely that neither of the two UAVs currently availablle could meet CAA requirements before 2015 at the earliest. However, an airship type model currently under development is subject to different regulations and could be deployed earlier.
So, not only to we have to look out for balacalavered chaps with guns in black RIBs but also to keep an eye on the sky. George Orwell was right -- he just got the date wrong!
