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If you are new to the world of unmanned aerial vehicles, you may wonder what police drones look like at night. Some of the best drones, after all, are being used by police and related law enforcement agencies. What is a drone, how can you spot police drones at night, and what other types of service drones could be lurking in your air space? Keep reading to find out.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
As the name suggests, police department drones are UAVs owned and operated by various law enforcement agencies, which is much different from learning what commercial drones are used for. Police drones scour neighborhoods looking for suspects and traffic infractions once the operators learn how to use the drone camera. Police drones are also durable and excel with surveillance tasks if you are looking for a waterproof drone.
Police department drones include many of the same features as commercial or consumer drones, including cameras if you are learning how to get into drone photography.
Police department drones are not unique in the world of UAVs, so they look like any drone for the most part. However, police drones will operate in neighborhoods and in areas of restricted airspace, which is something commercial drone pilots cannot do.
Insider Tip
Police drones have a limited range just like commercial drones, depending on the battery size and type.
Just as with visuals, law enforcement drones sound like any commercially-available drone. In other words, listen for the tell-tale whirring of the motor. Of course, all drones are different, so some will be louder than others as technology rapidly increases to minimize sound during use.
There are many ways to successfully identify a law enforcement drone at night. Here are a few tips.
A drone’s aerial lights are a dead giveaway here. If you see lights flying about the sky at night, chances are it is not a commercial drone but a police department drone.
There are many drone detection apps available to smartphone users, so give one a download and see if it works to spot any drones flying at night.
Installing standard motion detection cameras is a good way to suss out any drones flying over your property. Place them as indicated by the instructions and point them up and around for the best results.
STAT: In 2015, Congress passed the USA FREEDOM Act to ban bulk collection of sensitive information such as Americans’ communications metadata. (source)
