New UAV for Police Can Taze People from Above
August 22nd, 2011Via: Singularity Hub:
The ShadowHawk is the seven-foot, 50-lb copter that is the toy-sized dealer of destruction from Texas-based Vanguard Defense Industries. The copter is the result of three years of development. If being tased from above sounds frightening to you, I suggest you cease all criminal activities now (simply staying indoors is an option). There’s a good chance ShadowHawk’s spine tingling buzz could be heard approaching a city near you. As a sign of new law enforcement tactics to come, the Sheriff’s Office of Montgomery County, Texas was recently awarded a grant by the Department of Homeland Security for a squadron of ShadowHawks. Montgomery County’s Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel is psyched. “We are very excited about the funding and looking forward to placing the equipment into the field. Both my narcotics and SWAT units have been looking at numerous ways to deploy it and I absolutely believe it will become a critical component on all SWAT callouts and narcotics raids and emergency management operations.”
as disturbing as the concept itself is, i wasn’t really *scared* until he said,
“…and emergency management operations.”
tasers were inspired by cattle prods, weren’t they? i can see it, now.
Indeed. Despite the cutesy, Popular Science writing style of the piece, this is really terrifying, a real game-changer. Until now, authorities have had three options, none of them very good, when dealing with crowds and demonstrations – dispersal with tear gas and the like, physical intervention with batons, rubber bullets and so on (a last resort), or an awkward and embarrassing stand-off. Now dozens, hundreds, can be physically incapacitated with none of the bad press caused by riot police wading into a crowd. It’s all very clean and “sanitary”.
Mmmm, actually that could get messy. Quite. I know enough about small scale helicopter toys to know that a 7-foot toy (despite the claims of high tech wizardry, these are still effectively toys) will not last long hovering above people anywhere near trees, buildings or wires. These will crash. A lot. And likely hurt people worse then the tasers. People may also enjoy throwing things at them if they get low enough.