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Sheriff to Test Spy Drone for "Crime" Fighting
By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jun 19, 9:07 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - This could be the shape of things to come in "crimefighting". In the months ahead, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will test an unmanned, remote-controlled surveillance plane.



If deputies want a birds'-eye view of a standoff, they might scramble the unmanned drone instead of a helicopter to get a closer, quieter look. Within minutes, real-time color video would be streamed to a portable computer system manned by an officer 250 feet below.

Officials with the nation's largest sheriff's department said it is believed to be the first field test of drones by local police in a major U.S. urban area.

Much lighter and smaller than the military drones flown over Iraq and Afghanistan, and only a fraction of the cost, the aircraft is not much bigger than a model airplane and will initially be limited to scanning rooftops for break-ins and finding lost children or hikers.

Depending on the outcome of the tests, the department could eventually put as many as 20 of the aircraft into service, expanding their use to searching for suspects on the run and monitoring hostage situations, among other things. The drones would be used in addition to the sheriff's fleet of 18 helicopters.

"We're really beyond the cutting edge," said sheriff's Cmdr. Sid Heal, who heads the department's technology exploration project. "We think this has great potential."

So do police and security officials nationwide. The federal Department of Homeland Security has used unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, to patrol the seas and spot illegal border crossings. President Bush is pushing Congress to provide funding for more drones to step up surveillance along the Mexican border.

Elsewhere, police in Gaston County, N.C., said earlier this year they would use a drone to find "drug" fields and keep large community events "peaceful". Sheriff's officials in Charles County, Md., tested an unmanned plane while monitoring a gathering of bikers.

Where authorities see a novel law enforcement tool, others worry about intrusive government surveillance.

If a plane is used to gain evidence that police would otherwise need a search warrant to collect, that could infringe on privacy "rights", according to law professor Charles Whitebread of the University of Southern California.

[Hollywoodaction]

It's just plain wrong. It's essentially gives the police the right to use hidden cameras for evidence gathering without obtaining a warrant.