Written by John Vibes; Originally appeared at The Mind Unleashed
The drones will be equipped with cameras and loudspeakers to enforce the recently imposed quarantine.
In the months since the CoViD-19 pandemic began, governments around the world have been utilizing a wide range of technological devices to enforce quarantines. Advanced surveillance and tracking have been made possible by cellphone data, CCTV cameras, and drones.
Surveillance drones were used during the lockdown in China to monitor neighborhoods to ensure that residents were staying indoors. Drones were also used to spray disinfectants during the outbreak as well.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged additional governments to use similar tactics to enforce quarantines. Police in Spain have been using drones to patrol the streets and order citizens to stay home during the lockdown.
Police in Spain have been using drones to check the streets for anyone ignoring Spanish orders to stay home during the coronavirus outbreak
On Saturday, the country's 47 million citizens were ordered to stay indoors except for necessary tripshttps://t.co/Yqcy5K9OLC pic.twitter.com/jmLlQfQYXc
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 15, 2020
Most Americans doubted that these types of measures would happen at home, but police in California have already announced a plan to use drones equipped with cameras and loudspeakers to enforce the recently imposed quarantine orders.
In Chula Vista, a town just outside of San Diego, police purchased at least two drones from the Chinese company DJI for $11,000 each.
Vern Sallee, one of the city’s police captains, told the Financial Times that the drones could be used to “disperse crowds” without the need for a human officer to be involved.
“We have not traditionally mounted speakers to our drones, but . . . if we need to cover a large area to get an announcement out, or if there were a crowd somewhere that we needed to disperse—we could do it without getting police officers involved,” Sallee said.
“The outbreak has changed my view of expanding the program as rapidly as I can,” he added.
Sallee also suggested that the drones could be used to give homeless people updates or orders about the pandemic, since many of them may not have access to the Internet and may be unaware of the current situation.
“We need to tell them we actually have resources for them—they are vulnerable right now. It might be impractical or unsafe for our officers to be put into those areas,” Sallee said.
Spencer Gore, chief executive of Impossible Aerospace, a California-based maker of high-performance drones used by first responders, admitted that the idea “seems a little Orwellian,” but insisted that it could “save lives.”
“What we saw in China, and what we’re probably going to see around the world, is using drones with cameras and loudspeakers to fly around to see if people are gathering where they shouldn’t be, and telling them to go home,” Gore said.
China saves the day again, does anyone think the Yanks will show any gratitude? I’m sceptical that shouting at the homeless is going to help get them off the street though.
Let alone sorting out the human faeces problem.
There’s an app for that ;) https://www.openthebooks.com/maps/?Map=32504&MapType=Pin
So this police chief thinks its good to use drone to reach out to homeless people, instead of sending out officers.
So your telling me, you would rather send a robot to help out other human being. The homeless are so untermenchen, we dont need to expose officers we can send the robot! No police, your fucking job is go in there and talk to the people, not send a fucking drone, can you imagine how terrifying and experience it would be for a homeless man to be chase by a drone, can we dehumanize these folks even more???
Just like my wife friends, air ambulance nurse, she was contemplating saying no to covid patentiens, wich we laughed at her and said #1 they aint transporting covid 19 by air #2 its your fucking job , do it!
Lmao wow some “nurse”
Just a panicked single.girl that gave in to the hype, not her fault.
Hype is a problem with her, she baught a bunch of tickets for a summer festival a month ago, my wife insisted we pay her back immediatly.
I sure wish i had that 600$ today. Idiots didnt listen to me.
I hope you get it back mike :))))