Houston suburb police dept now has a drone aircraft

[thewayne]

And it can be weaponized.

"The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in suburban Houston, Texas is preparing to launch operations with a newly received Shadowhawk MK-III unmanned aerial vehicle, paid for by grant money received by the Department of Homeland Security. The MK-III is a product marketed for both military and law enforcement applications. Michael Buscher, chief executive officer of manufacturer Vanguard Defense Industries, said this is the first local law enforcement agency to buy one of his units. 'The aircraft has the capability to have a number of different systems on board. Mostly, for law enforcement, we focus on what we call less lethal systems,' he said, including Tazers that can send a jolt to a criminal on the ground or a gun that fires bean bags known as a 'stun baton.' 'You have a stun baton where you can actually engage somebody at altitude with the aircraft. A stun baton would essentially disable a suspect,' he said. The MK-III also has more lethal options available, capable of carrying either a 40mm or 37mm grenade launcher or 12 gauge shotgun with laser designator."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/29/1236236/weaponizable-police-uav-now-operational-in-texas

Comments

[silveradept]

Does the law just prevent the actual military personnel from being used against the civilian population, or does that extend to military technology as well?

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I thought that I'd read that this particular drone was no longer in military service, which wouldn't be significant as there are a number of weapons common between the military and civilian law enforcement. Some get pretty extreme, for example, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (AZ, Joe Arpaio) years bought an armored personnel carrier which was capable of mounting .50 caliber machine guns. (he pissed off the County Board of Supervisors and they refused to insure the beast, so it could never be driven anywhere, though that was a long time ago and the situation could have changed)

So in answer to your question, I think it only applies to active personnel. In this case, I would imagine that Montgomery County will hire civilians to operate their drone until some of their pilots can be brought up to speed on it. And there are exceptions to it. I think HIDTA installations might be able to use seconded military personnel. (but I could easily be wrong, I never worked with that unit extensively)

[silveradept]

Fair enough. The military's stuff, once done, goes to the police. And we wonder about the militarization of police units...