Just your local sheriff and trusted deputies. And their howitzer and manpads and...
Peace officers no doubt.
Nice drone you got there. It’d be a shame if anything were to happen to it, Sheriff.
Funny as hell. The first one crashed into their own Bearcat SWAT van. lol
Lovin it. Kevin Brady, my worthless representative was on hand to dedicate this new drone a while back. Made sure this morning to send him the report and express that I was sure glad it crashed into the lake rather than into a crowd at the fair.
Seriously...are the guys driving these things licensed like pilots?
Just your local sheriff and trusted deputies. And their howitzer and manpads and...
Peace officers no doubt.
I'm sitting in my house in Conroe laughing about this drone crashing in Lake Conroe which is about 5 miles from my house. This isn't the first time I've laughed about a drone in this county.
Yes, it's true, Homeland Security gave us a drone, back then I read the first one given to a Sheriff's department in the USA. The big day arrived, I read about it in the Houston Chronicle and the Conroe Courier, both of them on line shortly after it happened. This was a year or more ago, don't remember.
Everyone was gathered somewhere in Houston for the big event/effect of the sheriff getting the drone - but, gee, one has to demonstrate the drone to get the full effect of this huge gift, before it is given to us, right?. Well, off it went AND CRASHED, totally destroyed. Damn, no drone. Had to wait until HS could send another one.
Now, this present one has crashed - not surprised. Just glad it didn't hit my house. I think I recall when we were supposed to get that first one, a certain person was to be in charge of the drone, be the master of the flight of the thing. I think we don't need a drone - I prefer my roof in tact.
Sheriff’s Office drone takes dive, gets lost in Lake Conroe
From the local paper:
snip
This isn’t the first time the Sheriff’s drone has gone
awry. In March o2012, it was 15 feet off the ground when
the helicopter started to oscillate.
The aircraft’s rotor blades clipped a nearby SWAT truck,
inflicting damage before crashing.
end snip
It may be searching the bottom for all those assault rifles and other weapons people seem to be losing in terrible boating accidents. Those accidents are so common.
What’s the drone’s black box telling’em? /s
Is that why they need speed traps and such in order to collect money and buy toys such as this? Ridiculous.
When they retrieve this thing from the lake they may discover some holes punched through it that weren’t there when it took off.
Big government Homeland Security grants and giveaways of surplus armored vehicles are turning local cops into bad copies of Army special forces. Local law enforcement should be about knowing your community and appropriate threat response, not coming in like the WWII Soviet Army.
About the drone, they should have asked a 12 year old kid to train the cop pilot as most kids do very well with those radio controlled flying toys and race cars sold at Toys R Us.
Ever since those 19 Saudis/illegal immigrants allegedly pulled off 9-11, the government, surveillance, law enforcement, military complex have made fortunes while spying and putting American citizens under their thumb all at our expense. We citizens were not the problem then; we are not the problem now. Why are they spying on us?
The surveillance and spying would be better served if it was directed to the corrupt politicians and powers that be.
It’s hard to understand why Montgomery County would even need drone helicopter.
Other that getting it for nothing from the DHS what is the pressing issue there?
Montgomery County is one over from where my in-laws live.
Question is....was it A) pilot error, B) drone malfunction, or C) a pissed-off patriot hidden in the woods with a scope and a high-powered rifle?
Lake Cornhole? Who named it THAT, Kemosabe?
Drones are nice in that they can put eyes in the sky and give the operator the tactical picture on the ground. However, things can and do go wrong. The operator can screw up or the electronics fail and the drone will crash. That is a hazard that any radio control aircraft operator faces. Yes, the MCSO found it is expensive to lose a drone, but it is cheaper than a manned platform.
These copters come in either electric or gas engine types and range from palm-sized micro copters to large, multi-channel birds. The larger and more complex your copter is, the more expensive it is, and also more difficult to fly. Whoever the deputy is that gets the job of drone operator, he or she had better practice and gain RC experience with the smaller, cheaper, and simpler helicopters before graduating to $300,000 specimens. It's the only way the county will ever get any use from its expensive tech toys.
Gremlins i say, size makes no difference, they get into everything.
Nice to know high tech still has a common fault.
Human input.
Maybe the third one will be the charm. Besides, it’s government money, so it’s not like it cost anyone anything. What’s almost a million dollars anyway? /s