New work rotor: Helicopter drones to be deployed by U.S police forces for the first time (and it won't be long before the paparazzi use them, too)


Unmanned aerial spy vehicles are normally associated with covert government organisations such as the CIA and the war in Afghanistan – but now they’re about to enter everyday life in America because this year police forces there will be free to use them.

It won’t be long, either, before the paparazzi are using them to hunt down celebrities, according to experts, because the commercial ban on drones could be lifted by 2015.

But they’ll be a common sight over U.S cities long before then.

The ShadowHawk: This drone can hover silently at 700 feet at even communicate with air traffic control

The ShadowHawk: This drone can hover silently at 700 feet at even communicate with air traffic control

Blue sky thinking: Drones could become a common sight over U.S cities

Blue sky thinking: Police drones could become a common sight over U.S cities

There are several drone manufacturers that have built machines specifically tailored to the needs of police forces.

One is a quadcopter – a machine with four rotors – called the Qube made by AeroVironment, a company that already supplies over three-quarters of the U.S military’s drones.

The firm said: ‘Small enough to fit easily in the trunk of a car, the Qube system can be unpacked, assembled and ready for flight in less than five minutes, giving the operator a rapidly deployable eye in the sky at a fraction of the cost of manned aircraft.’

Qube can hover for 40 minutes and is equipped with dual colour and thermal video cameras.

What’s more, the air vehicle can transmit live video directly to the operator to assist with threat assessments.

Vanguard Defense Industries also makes a police drone, which it boasts can hover at 700 feet without being heard.

Size matters: Not all drones are tiny, as this European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company helicopter shows

Size matters: Not all drones are tiny, as this European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company helicopter shows

'WE'RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER DRONE' - WHEN THE POLICE CALLED IN A PREDATOR

An unmanned Predator drone


Last year a local sheriff deemed a family in North Dakota, the Brossarts, so dangerous that he unleashed an unmanned military Predator drone to help bring them in. 

The Brossarts allegedly stole three cows and their calves and three of the family's sons - Alex, Jacob and Thomas - confronted the sheriff and his officers with rifles and shotguns when they tried to collect the cows.

That's when the sheriff summoned a $154 million MQ-9 Predator B drone from nearby Grand Forks Air Force Base, where it was patrolling the US-Canada border for the U.S Department of Homeland Security.

Using a handheld device that picked up the video camera footage from the spy plane, the sheriff was able to watch the movements of everyone on the farm.

During an 16-hour standoff, the sheriff and his deputies waited until they could see the remaining Brossarts put down their weapons.

Then, dressed in SWAT gear, they stormed the compound and arrested the three Brossart sons. No shots were fired.

The ShadowHawk, it says, can also fly for up to three hours at a time, be refuelled in under five minutes and can even communicate with air traffic control.

The advantage for police forces is clear – they will be able to survey dangerous scenes with complete safety at little cost.

But as rules governing their use are lifted, there is also the prospect of people playing the authorities at their own game and using drones against them.

The founders of The Pirate Bay - one of the world's most popular file-sharing websites - for instance, recently announced that they want to use unmanned drones as network connections to avoid being shut down.

Just as controversially, drones are likely to be eagerly used by paparazzi.

Professor Matt Waite from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Drone Journalism Laboratory predicts a furore over privacy.

He told The Times: ‘Will the paparazzi use them? Absolutely. They’ll use any tool they can.’

There are also concerns that police will use the drones for spying on members of the public.

'I've got to tell you, it sort of looks like boys and their toys,' Terri Burke, Executive Director of The American Civil Liberties Union in Texas told Fox News.

'We’re giving up our privacy, we’re letting the government have way too much power.'

However, Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel in Montgomery, who has already used a ShadowHawk drone for an operation, said: 'This sheriff’s office has better things to do with its time then spy on people,'

'That’s not our mission. The only way that it’s going to be an invasion of their privacy is if they are committing some type of a criminal act where we might utilise this to catch them.'