Across California, police departments are rapidly expanding “Drone as First Responder” programs, triggering intense public backlash over warrantless surveillance and corporate overreach.

  • Pyr@lemmy.ca
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    2 hours ago

    They do have their place I would argue. I would much prefer cops fly a little drone to follow a car in a high speed chase than pay thousands of dollars for a helicopter. The suspect wouldn’t even be able to tell if they lost it or not if flying high enough.

  • bluegreenpurplepink@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Warrants required and No general searches!

    “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized”

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 hours ago

        Yeah, they do!

        What do you think is easier to acquire and more legally protected for an average person to possess, in the US, in CA?

        A shotgun?

        Or a high voltage military grade active radio frequency jammer?

        Or were you maybe thinking of an even higher voltage military grade microwave / laser beam emmitter?

        … just please tell me you were not thinking of a net gun that can somehow reach an altitude of a hundreds to thousands of feet.

        • tyler@programming.dev
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          4 hours ago

          Can’t tell if this is a joke or not. You’re not hitting a drone with a shotgun at 400 feet, much less thousands of feet.

            • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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              38 minutes ago

              They make shells for longer birding ranges that are like hybrids between birdshot and buckshot, but at that range you’d need a pretty skilled shooter with a good gun, and then you still have the problems that come with firing a gun. Unfortunately nobody has found a compact, easy-to-replicate mid-range solution. Buuuut if you’re an electronics person with a little knowledge, I’ve seen both internet hobbyists and Ansarallah soldiers with DIY directed jammers the size of a large rifle.

          • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            3 hours ago

            Yes, those are illegal to possess, much less use, and they are fairly easily triangulated.

            Due to the wifi/5g black hole they will indiscriminately create within their effective radius.

            Build and turn on one of those and you’ll be geolocated nearly instantly, and then go to jail for quite a long time.

            • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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              3 hours ago

              You would also be arrested for skeet shooting a police drone… given that my argument was about the safety of that not the legality I’m not sure what you are on about.

              • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                2 hours ago

                Ah, no, not if you know how to shoot something while also being not easily identifiable on camera, from a location you are not associated with.

                Did you think about how creating an 1/8 to 1/4 mile telecomm blackhole might cause some injuries or perhaps deaths?

                Maybe one of your neighbors was having a medical emergency, might have been useful for them or someone nearby to be able to use their phone, have EMS dial in to their location, get there real fast?

                No, you didn’t, otherwise you’d not be unsure of what I’m on about.

                Anyway best of luck with your purchase history.

                • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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                  2 hours ago

                  You are making a lot of assumptions about your ability to kill all the electronics onboard in one shot and assuming that one drone will be the only one in the air…

                  Best of luck with your “good ‘ol boy” solutions.

      • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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        5 hours ago

        Maybe if you’re shooting slugs, but I’ve never heard of anyone being dumb enough to go skeet shooting with slugs

        • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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          5 hours ago

          It doesn’t matter if you are using a fucking 9mm even, what goes up must come down and unless you are capable of firing directly up and in no wind it’s going to come down with a ballistic trajectory.

          • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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            4 hours ago

            If you shoot birdshot (small bb gun pellets) up in the air, they will have very little speed on the way down. Birdshot is what is used in skeet shooting.

          • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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            5 hours ago

            I would advise you look into terminal velocity and see just how much power you’re working with firing 20 guage birdshot. There’s a reason you never see anyone getting injured by crossfire when hunting birds or skeet shooting, it simply doesn’t have the power.

            You’ll definitely get rained on by birdshot though, it just won’t hurt.

                • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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                  4 hours ago

                  You said it won’t hurt.

                  So like… I chuck a small pellet into the air and it hits some child in the eye. And your claim is it won’t hurt.

                  And that sounds right to you?

              • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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                4 hours ago

                For what it’s worth, I’ve had birdshot bounce off a hard target and hit me in the cheekbone, and it stung but didn’t do much damage

              • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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                4 hours ago

                Maybe you should have read what you shared.

                The Kim Possible star continued: ‘There was another party with us and they unsafely fired in the wrong direction and shot me in the face.’

              • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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                4 hours ago

                Yeah typically speaking what you shoot at will get hit. This is why gun safety is important, the people who unsafely shot directly at her are a hazard and shouldn’t have guns. She’s especially unlucky in the sense that she was struck in a sensitive area.

                That being said, I’ve been rained on by birdshot and I’ve never had something like this happen to me. YMMV, but you couldn’t have found a more freak accident scenario to present.

  • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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    4 hours ago

    While one could argue the efficacy of taking out drones with a shotgun, the reality is that if you shoot at ANY drone with a firearm you will have every police force that has jurisdiction chomping at the bit to charge you with a felony. Drones (for now) should be handled with collective passive action. The easiest method that is legal in most places is to tether balloons/kites up to the maximum allowed FCC air space (typically 400feet above ground). A neighborhood of homes all with their own tethered balloons basically creates a no fly zone for drones. And most importantly it’s not a felony.