Are you ready for the invasion of the drones?

By LEO HOHMANN

We are about to experience an invasion of the drones. Police drones, that is.

Wired Magazine reports that nearly 1,500 U.S. police departments already operate drones but only about a dozen routinely dispatch them in response to 911 calls (this is according to data supplied by ACLU research).

Wired tells us that drone maker Skydio aims to see that change, with a new model launched last week called the X10 that will be marketed almost exclusively to police departments. The goal, CEO Adam Bry said during a launch event last week, is to “get drones everywhere they can be useful in public safety.”

That’s like giving a kid access to a candy jar without any rules or restrictions.

Skydio’s new drone is capable of flying at speeds of 45 miles per hour and is small enough to fit into the trunk of a police car. It has infrared sensors that can be used to track people and fly autonomously, even in the dark. Four payload bays on the X10 can carry accessories like a speaker, spotlight, or a parachute for emergency landings. A 65X zoom camera can read a license plate from 800 feet away and follow a vehicle from a distance of 3 miles.

Bry says, “I think mitigating or eliminating high-speed chases will be one of the major applications that we’ll see with customers, largely based on that zoom camera.”

According to Wired, new capabilities like those could encourage wider use of drones in law enforcement at a time when policy concerning their use is still developing. Tests by emergency responders and the US Federal Aviation Administration to extend drone flights beyond the operator’s line of sight and respond to 911 calls started in 2017. Civil liberties advocates told Wired that there is a lack of rules to limit drone use in sensitive contexts like public protests or in concert with other forms of surveillance technology.

Wired reports that Skydio was chosen in 2020 as one of a handful of companies approved for use by branches of the U.S. military, meaning these drones can be outfitted with weapons as well as surveillance tools. In other words, they can quickly become killer drones.

Some of Skydio’s customers include BNSF Railway, utility companies in California and Illinois, and multiple law enforcement agencies that include the NYPD.

At a press conference in July, New York Mayor Eric Adams announced that his police department would begin controlling drone flight licenses for the city. While holding a Skydio remote control as a prop, he voiced support for using drones for all sorts of policing options.

At the Skydio press conference and product launch last week, New York Police Department Chief of Patrols John Chell said he thinks drones can cut down on the need for helicopter deployments. In the near future he envisions the city police academy training recruits in how to pilot drones, placing at least one drone at each of the more than 70 precincts across New York, and drones launching autonomously to investigate alerts of potential gunshots heard by AI-powered tool ShotSpotter. Skydio introduced docks last year that house and charge drones and can enable autonomous take off.

The NYPD’s new interest in drones has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups like the ACLU and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, but also from less expected voices.

Curtis Sliwa founded the New York neighborhood-watch group Guardian Angels in 1979 to patrol city streets. Last month, Sliwa stated on his radio show that NYPD and Adams used drones to intimidate the crowd while Sliwa spoke at a recent anti-immigration protest. Watch Sliwa addressing this concerning situation in the video below.

So there you have the likely real reason for the increase in drone usage by police departments nationwide. Tracking, spying on political enemies and government intimidation of dissidents. We are entering an Orwellian phase here in America, folks. And very few politicians at the national or state levels are talking about this abuse of police powers. Rah Rah back the blue. It all sounds so nice to the conservative ear. But this is not so nice. We must make our voices heard on this issue at the local level, or it will boomerang into a full-blown police state.

As this technology continues to become more available, we will see more and smaller police agencies adopting it. They may even have their purchases and training on this equipment subsidized by federal tax dollars. It’s time to approach our local elected leaders and start asking some questions. I am 100 percent certain that if American police are allowed unfettered access to these unmanned aerial robots, it will only be a matter of time before they arm them with weapons and use them to take people out. Yes, they will say they’re just fighting crime and taking out criminals. But we all know how the definition of “criminal” and “terrorist” can change over time.

Futurism.com reports that Chinese military contractors have already started to sell dangerous, autonomous killer robots to customers in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other authoritarian countries of the Middle East.

The report states that a Chinese company called Ziyan is actively marketing its Blowfish A3 — an autonomous helicopter-like drone armed with a machine gun — to international buyers, according to Defense One. While several countries have been working towards this technology for years, this news means we’re finally, and unfortunately, living in the era of killer robots.

These autonomous kill bots are powered by artificial intelligence, meaning decisions on whether or not to apply deadly force are not necessarily made by a human being.

Tell your city council or county commissioners that we want no part of this technology in our local communities. Even allowing unarmed surveillance drones puts us on a slippery slope toward a dystopian reality in which we actually live in fear of machines attacking and killing people deemed dangerous to society, not because of criminal deeds done but because of ideas and beliefs that challenge the status quo.