Drones that can take your picture from 400ft up Police and fire departments around the US are using new high-tech drones for emergency response situations, reports Reuters. According to the news agency, some departments are using sophisticated fixed-wing drones that can remain in the air for hours as well as online digital mapping software to create virtual crimes scenes.
The operators of the emergency service drones say rapidly evolving drone technology is already reshaping disaster response, crime scene reconstruction, crisis management and tactical operations at home.
However, critics say the practice raises fears of misuse of the unmanned aircrafts.
Several dozen local police departments, federal agencies and universities have special FAA permits to fly drones in US airspace.
“Like a lot of law enforcement agencies, our first thoughts were, ‘Cool! Let's use it for tactical missions - for chasing bad guys across the county,’” said Ben Miller, a Mesa County, Colorado, sheriff's deputy.
“But the reality is you'll have a mission like that once or twice a year,” he said. “The real utility of unmanned aerial systems is not the sexy stuff. It's the crime scene and accident reconstruction.”
Despite flying 40 missions in just over three years, Miller admits “none of them were for surveillance.”
According to recent figures obtained by the civil liberties group Electronic Freedom Foundation, applications to the FAA indicate many police want drones for drug investigations, covert surveillance and high-risk tactical operations.
Domestic drones currently cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 for a small system like the DraganflyerX6, which stays aloft only 15 minutes, to more than $1 million for sophisticated fixed-wing drones that can remain aloft for hours.
Military models are also being used by the Department of Homeland Security, which has a fleet of at least 10 unarmed Predator drones, powerful enough to identify a tennis shoe from 60,000 feet up.
FAA officials will be required to open US skies in 2015 to widespread use of unmanned aircraft by public agencies and private industry.