Friday, June 15, 2012

Little minds certified 100% hobgoblin-free.

A recent poll says that Americans are totally against flying robot cops giving them speeding tickets.

Now, in practically every state you can get a ticket from a flying organic cop. In almost a dozen states, you can get speeding tickets from stationary robot cops. But flying robot cops are right out.

Right.

Any bets on whether the Ohio State Patrol or the California Highway Patrol is first with an airborne Officer R2D2?

26 comments:

Unknown said...

Prediction: in 20 years, at least half a dozen states will mandate license plate information on the roof of your vehicle. (At least two of those states will prohibit vehicle paint that renders the targeting laser of the police drone's Hellfire missiles less effective.)

Cargosquid said...

In 20 years, I predict that citizens will have counter drones and we'll see aerial drone dogfights or just outright interceptions. Certain Americans will have that capability. It will be the same people that now shoot out the cameras, etc.

TxRed said...

The speed of adoption of State Safety Enforcement Pods will be directly correlated with the sheer volume of budget deficit for said state.

The only real question that remains is which corporation will produce them. The result (Cyberdyne Systems, Weyland Yutani, General Atomics, Nexus Corp., Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, et al.) will determine exactly which dystopian future we'll be living in.

Personally, I'm pulling for Weyland Yutani. Those guys were sharp dressers and the firearms in that particular timeline looked pretty interesting.

Robert Fowler said...

" generating $158,811 in revenue in the first three months"

There it is boys and girls. They yell about safety, yet here in the paper they are always bragging about the amount of revenue generated. I have asked (and never got a answer) if it's for safety, why isn't the revenue being put back into the police and fire departments for equipment and training?

Robert Fowler said...

By the way, I read somewhere that the first person to shoot one of these things down will be a folk hero.

Anonymous said...

Apropos of nothing at all, During WWII the allied fighters could not shoot down the ME-262 jet in dogfights. So they learned to wait until they were landing and jumped them during their landing approach.

John said...

Ohio.....Hwy patrol there has Kontol Minds, top to bottom. A new uniform of Brown Shirts would go right along with Das Drones.

Anonymous said...

I guess its time to fire up the Spad and start drone hunting!

Gerry

Kristophr said...

You can, in most jurisdictions, get aircraft tickets thrown out.

A traffic ticket is an infraction. Unless they get a confession, enforcing an infraction requires that the officer witness the infraction, and write the ticket himself.

The cop in the aircraft is not going to be able to truthfully state that he saw the license plate number, or even the face of the driver ... he just describes the vehicle from above, and depends on a cop on the ground ( who did not see the infraction ) to write the ticket.

Obviously, some jurisdictions have different laws, but most just rely on people's tendency to just let the traffic cop make the sale.

rickn8or said...

Kristopher, most jurisdictions get around that by having an officer review red-light camera footage.

(Punishment for "suspended w/pay officers?")

But yeah, in the scenario you described, the average motorist does most of the cops' work for them.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Let's not forget that in Indy, you can get a ticket from a nearly-flying drunk cop on a fairly regular basis....

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Oh, and those "speed enforced from aircraft" signs? Every time I see them I keep wondering why the guys who recently whizzed past me doing 80 aren't burning at the side of the road from a few well-placed .50cals...

Anonymous said...

Hhmmmmm..... what firearm to hunt drones? Will Oleg's B.A.R. suffice,(gratuitous DaybyDay reference) or something....larger? Radar guided, or simple tracer rounds? Would this give the Feds the excuse to really go after .50 cal. weapons and tracers, the way they banned A.P. ammo? how about armed R/C models to kamakaze .gov drones? Inquiring minds want to know..... ;-). JohninMd(help!)

Anonymous said...

'Cause an airborne Bear can't HANDLE a .50..... :-D. JohninMd(help?)

Brad K. said...

OK, so I am re-reading David Weber's Honor Harrington books again (up to Flag in Exile), and laser-head nuke missiles are on my mind.

I wonder how long it will be before these "unarmed" (yeah, right, like any self-serving SWAT team doesn't want an observer or heavy artillery backup) flying traffic cops pack a paintball gun to "mark" a car, or a directed EMP pulse capable of crystallizing any modern engine and consumer electronics in the vehicle? You know, to stop bad guys from getting away from a massacre shootout. Or running a red light. Or failing to honk your horn when you begin to pass another vehicle.

Blackwing1 said...

Does anybody actually think that a severely dystopian future will have a dot-gov that allows ownership of private vehicles?

Aside from The Chosen Few(tm) (dot-gov bureaucrats, the politically connected and the extremely wealthy) we'll all be either walking, riding bicycles, or in a government-mandated mass-transit thing (which will always be cost-effective, clean, and on-time...in theory).

Anonymous said...

Stationary robot cops are about as popular as the flying versions, from what I've heard and read. Not that we've got a whole lot of say on either one, of course.

jf

Pakkinpoppa said...

With the current admin, I'm betting on Ohio for the flying robot police, since we just outlawed "hidden containers"...for the second time, apparently* but I digress.

Still haven't heard if that crashed Navy drone had any extra holes that caused it to go down.

*supposedly, folk who have lockable, non-factory installed containers to hide their heaters aboard is okay, but from many first hand accounts of folk pulled over by the Patrol, their keys to unlock will probably be placed into the trunk with instructions not to retrieve them until at home. Probably after said container was unlocked, heater unloaded, and ammunition placed with the key in the trunk. And, if it isn't addressed, some of us will have issues renewing our totin' license starting next year as well due to second time renewal requirements being so vague.

Anonymous said...

Five words: Radar-assisted anti-drone fire. Latest generation of WWII "ack-ack," at least until people figure out that eliminating the designers/builders negates the need for anti-drone devices.

rickn8or said...

...or in a government-mandated mass-transit thing (which will always be cost-effective, clean, and on-time..."

And you'll be safe because (almost) everybody will be unarmed.

Anonymous said...

The insurance companies will be funding the robocop programs. Every time someone gets a ticket, their revenue goes up. -- Lyle

Kristophr said...

rickn8or: it is still evidence ( a photo ) of an infraction, and not witnessing the infraction.

They still rely on people just paying the bail.

Anonymous said...

>Kristopher, most jurisdictions get around that by having an officer review red-light camera footage.

Yea, in Maryland they carefully review each and every ticket for a legitmate violation with the aid of an officer that has been dead for months before the infraction.

Due process, what the heck is that?

-SM

Matt G said...

I had hoped to be the first to point out that, according to Chris Muir, it would just end up becoming an expensive aerial target for you, but I was clearly too late. :)

Montie said...

Nope, I'm betting that the first jurisdiction to get a real live traffic enforcement drone will be some small podunk town that gets one courtesy of Federal Grant money. They will then use said drone for financial enrichment purposes to finance the town's operating expenses. This will go on until the state that said podunk town is located in gets enough complaints that it takes the drone and shuts down the whole operation (as Oklahoma has done to many small towns after declaring them "radar traps").

Grayson said...

Tam said it best over at Day By Day:

'You kill it, you clean it.'

Cheers!