{"id":32628,"date":"2013-05-11T02:21:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T01:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/alabama-police-using-drones-to-monitor-college-campus\/32628\/"},"modified":"2013-05-11T02:21:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T01:21:00","slug":"alabama-police-using-drones-to-monitor-college-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/alabama-police-using-drones-to-monitor-college-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama police using drones to monitor college campus"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

Officials at an Alabama university have divulged a new plan to use unmanned aerial devices to help police monitor, and supposedly protect, students on campus.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officials unveiled the plan Wednesday at a press
\nconference at the University of Alabama Huntsville, telling the
\nHuntsville Times the aircraft would provide an \u201ceye in the
\nsky<\/i>\u201d that could help stop a mass shooting on campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gary Maddux, the lead research director of Systems Management
\nand Productions Center, said that because the remote-controlled
\nsurveillance devices fly at a lower altitude than drones, they are
\ntotally unlike the controversial military aircraft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to be able to make a difference and we want to
\nmake a difference quickly and come up with something to help law
\nenforcement<\/i>,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s all about \u2014
\nimproving our response times so maybe we could mitigate the next
\ntragedy that could occur<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maddux did not specify how the surveillance technology will
\nprevent criminal activity or improve campus police response time.
\nHe did add, however, that the drones will \u201cbe incredibly useful
\nand offer a wide range of possible applications<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The UAVs used over the University of Alabama Huntsville will be
\ncapable of using small spotlights or infrared cameras, along with
\nvideo cameras. But being fitted with the extra technological perks
\ndoesn\u2019t mean the police will use them, Maddux claimed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019re going to be very cognizant of any privacy
\nissues for students<\/i>,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou can\u2019t be flying
\nyour drone and look inside a dorm window. But you couldn\u2019t do that
\nif you were stationary or over in this building and had a line of
\nsight to look in a dorm window. It\u2019s the same basic
\nrules<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He bristled when pressed on how the technology employed by the
\nunmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) differs from the military drones
\nthat regularly complete secret bombing missions around the
\nworld.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the military has UAVs that fly longer, higher and
\nfarther<\/i>,\u201d he said. \u201cSince we are research and the military
\nhas set of rules. If you are domestic and falling under what
\nFederal Aviation Administration guidelines, you have to stay under
\n400 feet. As far as drone technology versus what we\u2019re doing, I
\nthink it\u2019s more syntax than anything<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan seems to be in direct violation of a bill steadily
\nmaking its way through the Alabama state legislature. The bill,
\nproposed by a Huntsville lawmaker, would make it necessary for law
\nenforcement to obtain a warrant in order to use a drone in order to
\nprevent, in the words of one state senator, \u201cunmanned drones
\njust flying around looking for stuff<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on : RT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Officials at an Alabama university have divulged a new plan to use unmanned aerial devices to help police monitor, and supposedly protect, students on campus. Law enforcement officials unveiled the plan Wednesday at a press conference at the University of Alabama Huntsville, telling the Huntsville Times the aircraft would provide an \u201ceye in the sky\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}