University begins surveilling its students usings drones and hopes to expand it to public schools.

Huntsville, AL - The University of Alabama in Huntsville today unveiled new drone-like technology designed to enhance campus safety that someday may be available to help protect K-12 school systems.

At a news conference, the school showed off a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that will provide an "eye in the sky" for campus police, according to Gary Maddux, who is leading the research as director of the Systems Management and Production Center (SMAP).

"We just want to be able to make a difference and we want to make a difference quickly and come up with something to help law enforcement," Maddux said. "That's what it's all about - improving response times so maybe we could mitigate the next tragedy that could occur."

The advantages of the UAVs are to offer a new tool to campus police to investigate criminal activity as well as in emergency situations.

"The UAH Police Department is pleased to be associated with the Systems Management and Production Center in a partnership that is exploring realistic and effective uses for small UAVs in day-to-day law-enforcement and security operations on the campus," UAH Police Chief Michael Snellgrove said in a statement.

"We believe the technology may be incredibly useful and offers us a wide range of possible applications. We intend to review these applications and look for every possible way to take advantage of the available technology. Ultimately, our objective is to enhance our ability to make UAH an even more secure place to study, live, work and visit."

Much of the research is being conducted by students at UAH as well as other local colleges and universities, Maddux said.
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/05/uah_unveils_drone-like_uavs_to.html