A Drone Could Be Tracking Your Vehicle

[Verdinut]

That Drone in the Sky Could Be Tracking Your Car

Police are using their drones as flying automated license plate readers (ALPRs), airborne police cameras that make it easier than ever for law enforcement to follow you. "The Flock Safety drone, specifically, are flying LPR cameras as well,” Rahul Sidhu, Vice President of Aviation at Flock...

www.eff.org

 

[trochetier]

SCOTUS ruled sometime ago - there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public spaces.

If the drone is just taking pictures at one spot and one time then there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. However, if the following one specific car for for an extended period of time then it MAY be violating the expectation of privacy.

 

[lovinthehd]

LOL they're welcome to if they're that bored....

 

[ski2xblack]

I can already imagine the dudes at the local gun club concocting some sort of libertarian flavored scavenger hunt to see who can bag the most cop drones doing police-state poop, like high stakes sporting clays. If necessary, they'll call their shooting buddy who just happens to be the DA to have him drop any charges.

Those shooting clubs are filled to the brim with well connected, trigger-happy and bloodthirsty dentists, a force not to be trifled with!

 

[highfigh]

SCOTUS ruled sometime ago - there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public spaces.

If the drone is just taking pictures at one spot and one time then there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. However, if the following one specific car for for an extended period of time then it MAY be violating the expectation of privacy.

Flock has a database of license plates and their cameras can identify make/model of cars- if the plate doesn't match the car or if the car has no plates and it was reported as being involved in a crime, it sends an alert WRT the location/direction to law enforcement. This is very helpful during chases but if someone is being chased and parks the car so they can hide, the drone loitering in the area can prevent continuing the chase and lowers the risk of people being killed in collisions. The police need some way to stop the high speed chases and some of the devices being used, like tracking darts, often bounce off of the car. Te Grappler is expensive and requires mods to the squad cars, at a very high cost.

If a car is being watched for a long time, there's a reason.

 

[j_garcia]

Flock is attached to parking enforcement cars here. They just drive around and scan for expired and, as mentioned above, plates that don't match or are reported stolen vehicles.

If you are committing a crime, privacy no longer applies to you.