UK police drone grounded for flying without a license
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted February 16th 2010 10:26AM
posted February 16th 2010 10:26AM
As you know, the Merseyside (UK) police department finally nabbed a suspect with its £40,000 (roughly $63,000) drone recently -- an announcement that was accompanied by backslapping and hearty cheers all around. But what happens when the police run afoul of the law? According to the BBC, the vehicle has been grounded by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) under guidelines enacted in January stating that UAVs weighing over fifteen pounds need permission to fly within 164 feet of people and 492 feet of buildings. A spokesman for the coppers said "all Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) flights have been suspended and will remain so until the appropriate license has been granted," but don't worry Britons: you should still be able to rest easily at night knowing that you're still the most surveillance-happy nation in the history of the world. Cheerio!
[Thanks, Gringomoses and Ben]
[Thanks, Gringomoses and Ben]
Good use of $63000.
:Rolleyes:
@Hazdaz
UAV AVAIRRABLE
@Hazdaz
My thoughts exactly. ;)
Great article picture!!
@EdgeOne
Yeah, is that the SegaVR??? Wow, that takes me back.
@trainwrecka
You must be kidding. That is NOT Sega VR. It's Corey Laforge.
Well if the British courts are anything like the ones here in the United States. The case against the guy they just caught using the Drone. May have just put in severe jeopardy now.
Now the crook knows that the cops used a Drone that wasn't really legal to use to find him. I'm sure him and his lawyer will try and use this to their advantage.
@Nightwheel
Nah I'm sure it shouldn't effect the ruling (not a lawyer so just a hunch) our laws are pretty different over here...heck the laws are pretty different between Scotland and England let alone a completely different state entirely :P
@Nightwheel
That kind of thing applies to evidence presented where if it wasn't gained in a lawful manner then it can't be used. They could have found him by just looking in every bush so it's not like getting his address from his ISP without a warrant or similar so i'm not sure how it would work in relation to how he was physically located in this case.
@Nightwheel I agree with you, I think that this would invalidate the prosecution's case somewhat. However, not knowing anything about UK law, I can't say for certain.
it's ok guys. you can say "50 meters of people and 150 meters of buildings"
we're not totally oblivious! :)
I hate to break it to you but we're in the 21st century not the 5th.
The Britons were the Celtic people living in Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic. They lived throughout Britain south of about the Firth of Forth; after the 5th century Britons also migrated to continental Europe, where they established the settlements of Brittany in France and the obscure Britonia in what is now Galicia, Spain. Their relationship to the Picts north of the Forth has been the subject of much discussion, though most scholars accept that the Pictish language during this time was a Brythonic language related to, but perhaps distinct from, British.
@DocWolfe
Way to quote Wikipedia. Perhaps if you looked at the disambiguation, you would've seen that it also refers to modern British people.
This is pretty typical of the collective ineptitude of UK public bodies.
The Police Authority spend a huge amount of money - £40,000 is just the price of the thing, and won't factor in costs of training cops how to fly it - spent before they even know if they'll be able to use it...
The guy that got nabbed to great fanfare fro his secure hiding place in a bush, would have been just as easily flushed out by a couple of police dogs, and all for the cost of a couple of tins of Pedigree Chum.
dog potty grass
Soon Londinium will become the new City 17, with flying drones in every single corner of the city (plus a lot of explosive barrels ).
At least in the uk you can see the cameras..
I don't want to be under constant surveillance but:
USA murder rate: 5.4 per year per 100,000 people (source: FBI)
England / Wales murder rate: 1.37 per year per 100,000 people (source: Home Office [UK])
Just saying...
@Smurf
3.97 of those killings in the US are because of guns.
In the UK, that number is 0.14.
@Smurf Have to agree with you here. I'll take our surveilance paranoia over the US's murder rate, second class telecoms system and third rate national health serv..oops, they don't have one of those do they. I'd suggest that the editors of Engadget start pulling their heads out of their butts and get over their constant xenophobia for anything outside the mainland USA. Of late I have noticed both on the web pages and in the blog, how ill informed they have become over anything to do with life outside of the US and the general trash they talk. For example when criticizing Nokia and saying that they dont understand the cellular phone market, I'll remind you that they are still the biggest cellular handset retailer in Europe, which taken as a whole is actually a larger market than the US. Just because they are losing market share in the US does not make the company FTL !
@Hazdaz
It's good to know that the guns are responsible. Silly me, I thought it was irresponsible or criminally minded people that were to blame. Fortunately, I now know that the guns are at fault and should be punished.
@Abe: Yes, we don't have any irresponsible or criminally-minded people in the UK. That explains the big difference in murder rates.
Anyway, back to the point: these drones are basically just flying cameras, right? It's not like they have guns on or anything. Can't they make the things smaller so you don't need a license... or a £40,000 cost...
@Hazdaz
As of 2001, blacks made up about 3% of Britain's population; in the US, blacks make up about 12% of the population in 2008. Despite being 12% of the population, they caused 36% of all recorded murders that year and 39% of the violent crime. Draw your own conclusions.
If you guys hate Engadget so much then don't read it. This is an American blog, written by Americans, and it has an American Perspective. Anyway, if it happened in LA we would be making fun of it too. So chill out.
The murder rate in the UK was low way before they started spending millions on CCTV and drones, and I don't really think the two are related. I think the fact that half the families in this country have a gun is related, simply because it is a whole lot easier to kill someone with a gun. Before I get flamed by gun owners I do have several guns, and support the right for people to have them.
Guys it isn't surveillance state. We are all on the Truman Show! WAAAAY
well I live in scotland, there are more surveillance cameras than people anywhere in Glasgow. Happy shoplifting!!