EPA defends its usage of UAV's as drone manufacturers make sales pitches to every police dept.

Lincoln, NE - Snapping photos of livestock farms from an airplane is a legal and cost-effective way to help protect Nebraska and Iowa streams from runoff contamination, say officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The agency's aerial surveillance program came under scrutiny last week when Nebraska's congressional delegation sent a joint letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. The elected officials asked Jackson to reply by June 10 to a list of 25 questions, including whether federal law allows such surveillance.

On Friday, EPA officials in the agency's Region 7 office in Kansas City provided written responses to questions emailed earlier in the week by The World-Herald.

“Courts, including the Supreme Court, have found similar types of flights to be legal (for example to take aerial photographs of a chemical manufacturing facility) and EPA would use such flights in appropriate instances to protect people and the environment from violations of the Clean Water Act,” the agency said in response to a question about legality.

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., a former U.S. agriculture secretary, said Friday he remains highly doubtful the agency has congressional authority to act as an eye in the sky.

“They are just way on the outer limits of any authority they've been granted,” he said.

Nebraska's two senators and three representatives signed the letter at the urging of livestock producers who consider the flyovers an invasion of privacy and heavy-handed government intimidation.  http://www.omaha.com/article/20120604/NEWS01/706049932

Military may be using drones in US to help police.

Los Angeles, CA - As the Federal Aviation Administration helps usher in an age of drones for U.S. law enforcement agencies, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) domestically by the U.S. military — and the sharing of collected data with police agencies — is raising its own concerns about possible violations of privacy and Constitutional law, according to drone critics.

A non-classified U.S. Air Force intelligence report obtained by KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO dated April 23, 2012, is helping fuel concern that video and other data inadvertently captured by Air Force drones already flying through some U.S. airspace, might end up in the hands of federal or local law enforcement, doing an end-run around normal procedures requiring police to obtain court issued warrants.  

The following was taken from the US Air Force report:

 

US Air Force report: http://cbsla.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/drones1.pdf

“We’ve seen in some records that were released by the Air Force just recently, that under their rules, they are allowed to fly drones in public areas and record information on domestic situations,” says Jennifer Lynch, an attorney with the San Francisco based Electronic Frontier Association, who is looking into various government surveillance techniques.

“This report noted that they are able to collect that information and then determine whether or not they can keep it.”

Drone manufacturers are gearing up to pitch an estimated 18,000 police departments in the U.S. on the benefits of flying drones.

Many law enforcement agencies in Southern California — including the LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department — are evaluating the usefulness of drones in the greatly restricted and highly congested airspace that surrounds the L.A. basin.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/06/04/the-age-of-drones-military-may-be-using-drones-in-us-to-help-police/

 Would police use of drones be thrifty, or threat to liberty?

Richmond, VA. -- Gov. Bob McDonnell has signaled that he is open to the domestic use of unmanned aircraft in law enforcement, triggering concern from a civil-liberties group about the threat to privacy posed by drones soaring through American skies.

McDonnell broached the issue last week in response to a question asked during a monthly radio appearance, but the use of drones by state police does not appear imminent.

"America is not a battlefield, and the citizens of this nation are not insurgents in need of vanquishing," John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, wrote Friday in a letter to McDonnell and copied to the Virginia General Assembly.

"Moreover, a rapid adoption of drone technology before properly vetting the safety, privacy and civil-liberties issues involved would be a disaster for your administration and the people of Virginia."

The Federal Aviation Administration issues certificates allowing public agencies and organizations in the U.S. to operate a particular unmanned aircraft — more commonly thought of in use over military battlefields — under specific conditions.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/state-news/2012/jun/03/tdmet02-would-police-use-of-drones-be-thrifty-or-t-ar-1961648/

 Massive experimental drone takes to skies above Edwards AFB.

A massive experimental drone designed by Boeing Co. engineers to fly for up to four days at a time completed its first test flight above the Mojave Desert at Edwards Air Force Base.

The drone, called Phantom Eye, and its hydrogen-fueled propulsion system have the potential to vastly expand the reach of military spy craft. The longest that reconnaissance planes can stay in the air now is about 30 hours.

In the test flight, which took place Friday, the Phantom Eye circled above Edwards at about 4,080 feet above Edwards for 28 minutes. After touching down, the vehicle had problems when the landing gear dug into the lake bed and broke.

The Chicago-based company said engineers are assessing the damage but added that they plan on putting the Phantom Eye through more demanding test flights in the future.

With a 150-foot wingspan and an egg-shaped fuselage, the drone was built at Boeing's Phantom Works complex in St. Louis with engineering support from its facilities in Huntington Beach. The drone is designed to spy over vast areas at an altitude of up to 65,000 feet.

"This day ushers in a new era of persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance where an unmanned aircraft will remain on station for days at a time providing critical information and services," said Phantom Works President Darryl Davis in a statement. "This flight puts Boeing on a path to accomplish another aerospace first — the capability of four days of un-refueled, autonomous flight."
 http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-boeing-spy-drone-phantom-20120604,0,3627487.story

The U.S. military is operating drones domestically and sharing data with law enforcement.

As many are now well aware, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is pushing for the integration of drones into the national airspace, especially for use by law enforcement and unsurprisingly a bill was passed and signed into law doing just that.

This is disturbing to some, for good reason. It has become clear that when you give the federal government an inch, they will take a mile. This can be seen quite plainly in the so-called war on terror and how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has rapidly expanded into a massive agency which regularly violates our rights.

It can also be seen in how some entities will simply give themselves ludicrous powers over the personal information of Americans, such as the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which not long ago gave itself the power to keep the personal information of Americans – with absolutely no links to terrorism whatsoever – for a whopping five years.

A new report from CBS Los Angeles has revealed some disturbing truths regarding the United States military’s use of drones in American airspace and their sharing of data with various government entities and law enforcement agencies.

While it is far from news to most that the military is working with law enforcement in this regard, as evidenced by the launching of a military drone from a military base in order to conduct a domestic law enforcement operation, the documents obtained by CBS Los Angeles reveal some new information.

A non-classified intelligence report written by the U.S. Air Force dated April 23, 2012 reveals that video and other data captured “inadvertently” or “mistakenly” by military drones flying above the United States could quite easily end up in the hands of federal, state or local law enforcement agencies.
Even the local CBS affiliate in Los Angeles realizes that this is far from minor in pointing out that this procedure is means that law enforcement and the military are “doing an end-run around normal procedures requiring police to obtain court issued warrants.” http://EndtheLie.com/2012/06/05/the-u-s-military-is-operating-drones-domestically-and-sharing-data-with-law-enforcement/#ixzz1wvDk2FGx