The Montgomery County Sheriffs Office is weeks away from launching an unmanned aerial asset to help deputies fight crime. The ShadowHawk helicopter is six-feet long, weighs fifty pounds and fits in the back of an SUV.
We can put it over a fire, put it over ahazmat spill, put it over a house with a suspect barricaded inside and literally give the incident commander the ability to look at the entire scene with a birds eye view, Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel said.
Sheriffs deputies will fly the ShadowHawk with nothing more than a laptop computer and a remote control similar to that used for video games.
Its equipped with an infrared camera that can clearly read a license plate from an elevation of twelve hundred feet. The helicopter cost upwards of $300,000 and was purchased with a grant from the federal government.
Vanguard Defense Industries built the helicopter. The company has also supplied aerial assets to US forces over seas.
Critics argue the drone-like vehicleisnt safe, because its unmanned.
I gotta tell you, it sort of looks like boys and their toys, said Terri Burke, Executive Director of the ACLU of Texas. Were giving up our privacy, were letting the government have way too much power.
The ACLU is concerned that technology used by law enforcement officials in general is getting ahead of peoples privacy. No one has complained to the ACLU about the Montgomery County helicopter, but some fear it could be used to spy on people.
The Constitution spells out very clearly that we have a right to privacy, Burke said.
This sheriffs office has better things to do with its time then spy on people, McDaniel argued. "Thats not our mission. The only way that its going to be an invasion of their privacy is if they are committing some type of a criminal act where we might utilize this to catch them.
"the man who puts all the guns and all the decision-making power into the hands of the central government and then says, Limit yourself; it is he who is truly the impractical utopian." Murray Rothbard
I may have to save my pennies for a 50 cal after all.
We are not allowed to make a decision as mundane as what kind of lightbulb we're going to use anymore, but we're allowed to choose who runs the city, state, and fedgoob? Give me a break. - Esso
Time for the hunter's to do what they've really been training for all their lives: take out that Flying Eye of ZOG.
With the exception of Whites, the rule among the peoples of the world, whether residing in their homelands or settled in Western democracies, is ethnocentrism and moral particularism: they stick together and good means what is good for their ethnic group." -Alex Kurtagic