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A look inside illegal drone deliveries at B.C.'s prisons
- FredPret 2y agoDrones are now used as weapons as well, which means we need to figure out a good counter to them anyway. Some (most?) prisons are near built-up areas, which means non-kinetic solutions. - glue-ball cannon - EMP cannon - water cannon - an eagle
- lobochrome 2y ago- Windows that can‘t open? - Nets?
- dullcrisp 2y agoAn eagle!
- bewuethr 2y agoThat's a thing! https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000004415524/eagle-catches-drone.html https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000004415524/e...
- prawn 2y agoI've had a drone taken down by an eagle. But I've also had larger eagles completely ignore drones coming quite close to them because they don't think it's food or a threat.
- schrectacular 2y agoI feel like the criminals would kill the eagle pretty quickly
- cryptoz 2y agoJohn West endured the worst, to bring you the best.
- teeray 2y agoBirds are actually fairly straightforward to evade—you rapidly ascend vertically. If the bird tried to follow, its wings would stall (they can feel this happening and avoid it).
- ceejayoz 2y ago> Using nets around the facilities was discussed, but posed environmental concerns, human rights issues and wildlife risks.
- dtauzell 2y agoThe article does address use of nets
- coffeebeqn 2y agoA bigger faster apex drone optimized for killing lesser drones
- PierceJoy 2y agoIsn’t that what Anduril was showing off in the recent Mark Rober video?
- robsh 2y agoIf we spam critical EM frequencies drones may fall out of the sky. For example a laser pointer may overwhelm optical sensors, while ultrasonic distance sensors are often used to determine height and proximity to obstacles. Some pilot software may fail gracefully, by safely flying blind and landing gently - but I’m guessing most will fail spectacularly.
- Terr_ 2y ago> If we spam critical EM frequencies drones may fall out of the sky. 1. Now everybody within X miles hates your guts because phones and wifi are broken and emergency services can't talk to one another and airplanes have to detour while the FCC is sharping their knives. 2. Criminals who don't care about being nice people will just use frequencies you can't/won't jam, perhaps even the ranges that let the guards' walkie-talkies work, as long as the encoding doesn't lead to telltale noises.
- theendisney 2y agoMany fly back to the pilot if disconected which could be interesting.
- Terr_ 2y agoI expect savvy criminals won't have too many problems adopting a system where an aborted run causes the drone to automatically divert to a different recovery site, so that the operator has options on how and when they want to try getting it back. I imagine the ideal location would be one where (A) the drone can sit unattended without being in casual view from passerby (B) it's hard for law-enforcement to set up an ambush (C) someone can walk/drive past without looking suspicious. Come to think of it, that might be good operation-security even for regular runs, where the drone never returns to the same starting point. That way if someone sees where it came from, they don't necessarily know it will go, and vice-versa.
- theendisney 2y ago
- wolpoli 2y agoHigh powered laser would also work.
- fnord77 2y agorepurpose the mosquito laser!
- jimbob45 2y agoA camera to look at the skies and penalties for inmates that accept packages?
- ficklepickle 2y agoThey are in that institution because they didn't respond to the threat of penalties. Even if the penalty were death, a new inmate would be coerced to grab the package under threat of a worse death.
- s1artibartfast 2y agoJust lock down and intercept the drugs. problem solved.
- discordance 2y agoPlenty of anti-drone companies around. Mostly defense focused. One off the top of my head is Drone Shield.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- fnord77 2y agocope cage
- klyrs 2y agoMultiple drones, carrying a net!
- busymom0 2y agoI watched the tv series mayor of Kingstown and in that, they used tennis balls filled with stuff.
- hazmazlaz 2y agoA lightweight net will do the trick. Super simple, cheap, as close to 100% effective as you're likely to get.
- dhosek 2y agoMy favorite part was the ad at the bottom of the article “Best top 5 drones”
- Aspos 2y agoI swear I remember reading a paper discussing training crows to attack drones. Can't find it now
- TOMDM 2y agoClosest I remember is the French anti-drone eagles. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/21/terrorists-are-building-drones-france-is-destroying-them-with-eagles/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/21... Don't know if they're still at it.
- trhway 2y agoYou can use drones to attack drones. Autonomous as well as human piloted. Keyword in the article though is that searches and lockdowns are expensive, ie overtime, guards love it. So I wonder how much the real interest, if any, in solving the issue.
- throwup238 2y agoThis was literally a plot point during the Trailer Park Boys: Jail series where the boys used a drone to bring in weed and a flat screen television to the Nova Scotia prison. I feel like this is the most Canadian story ever.
- ashconnor 2y agoIt's prolific in the UK. When I was a kid I had a friend that lived near HMP Altcourse and we would see the local drug dealers catapult cut tennis balls over the prison walls.
- theendisney 2y agoRather than intercept them a solution that triangulates the pilot seems a better idea. Let it make the delivery.
- dukeofdoom 2y agoBoredom is mind damaging too. Drugs could be alleviating a prisoners mental suffering by allowing a mental escape. And preserving their mental health in the long run. Something worth preserving assuming the person will reintegrate to society. But that probably depends on the person's propensity to get addicted. If they will allow prisoners to MAID themselves, why is it worse to let them use drugs to reduce their suffering? The bigger issue, IMHO (more damaging to society) is government corruption (looting, no bid contracts, bribes, over budget, under delivery services, and just comically bad ideas being funded). Billions of dollars have been misappropriated. And it's all legal. Or near legal, as white collar crime is rarely punished. And it can eventually turn into inflation and a declining standard of living.
- galaxyLogic 2y agoWell the same goes for the society as whole, why just prisons?
- mkoryak 2y agoNothing makes them special. Please drop drugs to 47,06554 -24,7557. I will write you a thank you note.
- kbos87 2y agoA junior product manager at DJI could have spotted this as a risk on day two. This is a predictable problem that is completely solvable, if only the company had an interest in doing so. There are a lot of people who have done a lot less who are currently sitting in prison.
- dheera 2y agoIn that case they would just use a non-DJI drone.
- lazide 2y agowhy should DJI care?
- j16sdiz 2y agoRegulations. If they don't care, some government will force some worse regulation on them. ... and DJI is a Chinese company, where the government have no shame making up ad-hoc arbitrary rules.
- fragmede 2y agobecause the technology exists for DJI's drones to not work near prisons, which means there's a lawsuit waiting to happen, which means monetary fines for the company, which means the executives get paid less (sometimes) so they should theoretically care.
- busymom0 2y agoAre they legally required to prevent it though? Like I know people are prohibited from flying drones near airports but don't know if the manufacturer is required to prevent it too and whether the manufacturer is required to prevent it near prisons too?
- plantain 2y agoThey definitely do care - DJI devices block you flying in any kind of prohibited airspace out of the box and it's very difficult to override. In many countries, there's prohibited airspace over prisons for this reason.