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Next Big Thing – police drones

The US is getting drone spies in 90 days – it’s only a matter of time before the UK is similarly swarmed

What’s a drone? Like a robot slave?

Yes, of sorts. In this case it’s a quadrocopter armed with a camera – and there are going to be lots of them. It’s a US$5.9bn industry that was previously prevented by law from taking to the skies. Now, a new law means that US police can hover their 4.4lb drones up to 400ft at any time, in any place. It also means that drones will become big business.

What, the police are going to sell their footage?

No but estate agents are going to use drones to create sweeping videos of properties for better sales. In fact anybody can fly a drone, opening up a whole can of invasive worms that the US government doesn’t seem to care about. Police will soon be following suspects, checking traffic and even – from 2015, when the law’s extended – hovering at 30,000ft, watching over events, unseen. Creepy.

That’s not too scary really, it’s like CCTV.

Sure, for now. But there are currently plenty of pounds and dollars being spent on weaponising the drones. It might just be tear gas, tasers and stun guns for now – but it’s a slippery slope. More scary still is the thought of the paparazzi getting access to drones – Z-list celebs will be all over the internet more than ever.

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About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home