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Military spy drones to be used by British police

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posted on Feb, 15 2010 @ 03:44 PM
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Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

Source

This is getting insane. It's not enough that people are under constant surveillance in the city centers, now the police want to use drones to provide on-demand surveillance and also to cover the rural areas as well?


Britain is a 'surveillance society' (2006)

There are up to 4.2m CCTV cameras in Britain - about one for every 14 people. (2006 figures)

CCTV statistics by region (2009)

The borough of Wandsworth has the highest number of CCTV cameras in London, with just under four cameras per 1,000 people. Its total number of cameras - 1,113 - is more than the police departments of Boston [USA], Johannesburg and Dublin City Council combined.


There are two things that bother me about this storey. The first is that on Oct 15, 2006 the police in Britain tried to calm people be saying that even if this ever came to pass it would be 'a long way off' before it actually happened.

Police play down spy plane idea (Oct 15 2006)

It is now 3 1/3 years (40 months) to the day that this claim was made. I must have a different perspective on time as this does not seem 'a long way off' as it was originally claimed.

The second, more disturbing problem is that I first read about this idea within the last week/10 days; I use iGoogle with several apps for news feeds from around the world. When I read the article at that time, it was being reported that these drones would carry pepper rounds and tear gas canisters in addition to a suite of cameras.

I have tried for over an hour, but there is no trace of that original article.


Note to MODS: I tried to use the original title from the article, but the thread post was blocked due to a 2008 thread with the same/similar title.


Editted for form and (numerous) spelling errors.

[edit on 15-2-2010 by [davinci]]



posted on Feb, 16 2010 @ 12:20 AM
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Oh, look. Their citizens have let the government establish a police state.

How cute.

I wonder if and how they plan on putting a stop to the tightening fist of their government?



posted on Feb, 16 2010 @ 05:09 AM
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reply to post by mattifikation
 


What worries me is that Vancouver has opened the door for the same thing here in Canada.

CCTV to monitor high crime areas in Vancouver and Surrey (2008)

City admits CCTV cameras here to stay (2009)

Olympic Surveillance cameras causing concern (2010)

It's the last article that provides the best insight...


The city has said it plans to deactivate the cameras after the Paralympic Games end March 28, but whether or not they will be removed is not clear.

"We need to approach it very cautiously," Mayor Gregor Robertson told CBC News.

"There's a reason to [use them] for the Games specifically but after that there needs to be a lot more dialogue. People have to understand what the pros and cons are before we move forward on that."



"People have to understand what the pros and cons are before we move forward on that."

So that's a NO then, they won't be removed. Since they're going to be there anyways, might as well leave them on too.

It's only a matter of time now until the rest of the country points to Vancouver as justification for installing cameras everywhere.

[edit on 16-2-2010 by [davinci]]



posted on Feb, 20 2010 @ 06:44 PM
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1984.

Goddamn telescreens and flying helicopters roaming about.



posted on Feb, 20 2010 @ 07:11 PM
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Police on Merseyside have had to ground their new drone over concerns it was being used illegally without a licence.

Merseyside Police said they had been unaware they needed a licence to fly the remote control helicopter, which is fitted with CCTV.
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Well that's one thing at least... But it's only a temporary set back I bet... I really hope one of these things comes down at some big event or something so that the public will get outraged.




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