Drones deployed in Dorner man-hunt

mq 1 predator droneSlash Gear – by Chris Davies

US security officials have approved the first known use of drone man-hunting on American soil, with fugitive Christopher Dorner, who has a $1mn bounty on his head after killing three people, being chased by the remote-controlled tech. Customs and Border Control confirmed to Express that eye-in-the-sky technology – which is equipped with thermal-imaging cameras – had been deployed to monitor the Mexican border, where Dorner is believed to be headed.

“This agency has been at the forefront of domestic use of drones by law enforcement” spokesperson Ralph DeSio said when asked about the tracking technology. “That’s all I can say at the moment.”

However, an unnamed senior police source described the search as “like looking for a needle in a haystack,” and suggested that the thermal cameras – which show body heat, and as such are more useful in nighttime and when broad swathes of ground must be examined – were the “only hope of finding him.”

Exactly what sort of drone has been sent out in the search is unclear, though the Customs and Border Control team has been known to use a Predator model in previous incidents. Back in 2011, a high-level Predator drone operated by the agency provided valuable intelligence to a SWAT team dealing with a disgruntled, gun-toting North Dakota man, who had threatened police.

The Dorner case is the first known time when the drones – also known as UAV, or unmanned aerial vehicles – have been sent out to actively hunt a fugitive, however. Dorner, who was fired from the LAPD in 2008, has threatened a killing spree of police officers and their families, and his training in the police force and, before that, the US Navy has made him a difficult target to track.

Drone use has proved controversial in recent years, particularly the part the UAVs have played in warzones, where they have been used to deliver targeted weapons without putting manned vehicles at risk. Two separate DARPA proposals last month detailed the possible next-generation of the technology, including a high-resolution camera for improved identification, and plans to store drones underwater for rapid deployment.

They’ll join an already cluttered sky, however. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released a map of UAVs in operation last December, spanning everything from large Predator and Reaper models, down to hand-launched Raven, Puma, and Wasp drones in testing by the US Air Force.

10 thoughts on “Drones deployed in Dorner man-hunt

  1. aw man, just wait for when the RFID chip will be mandatory. I can see it now that if they want somebody that they will just type in the RFID chip code that has been assigned to a certain indivual and then the drone will go find that indivudual and either murder him or alert the authorities of the individuales location.

  2. Any ^$^$#(*$%^&&$@#^%^ excuse to fly armed drones over American Nationals. I say shoot these pterodactyls out of the sky!

  3. …and it could lead to this:
    Let’s say the Nazis are unable to locate “him” along the border. The psyop leaders will then tell us that he has been spotted in, perhaps, Bakersfield.
    The “authorities” will get with the presstitutes and say he is in that city based on “information from reliable sources.” So, the drones will go over Bakersfield.
    Then, there will be other “spottings” of our 21st century Richard Kimble. Maybe Fresno and Reno. Why not throw in Sacramento, Monterey, Medford and a few others? After all, there are many “reliable” sources telling is he COULD be in one of these cities, so we must check them all.
    Rather than using up “man”power on this search [because traffic and jaywalking tickets, and the support of the local donut industry is paramount.], the use of drones over many other cities will be “necessary.”

  4. Has anyone seen any proof this guy shot the first two or the two cops.I mean it could have been a pissed off x-boyfriend on the first two and a gang-banger look alike on the cops.$1 mil bounty?The cops in LA are leaving a brown trail behind them over this if this guy is real.

    1. I don’t even know why he shot a college coach and his fiance in the first place which supposedly started it all. Was it to get the cops attention? Couldn’t have done it a different way without the loss of human life if he was so high and moral? Like Redhorse basically says, WHERE’S THE PROOF???!!!!! Has anyone even seen this guy? Were the witnesses even interviewed or were they kept silent like the Sandy Hook families because they wanted to “respect their privacy”? This is turning into a Sandy Hook issue involving cops instead of children. Have they even shown the identities of the cops who got shot or injured or interviewed them at the hospital? WHERE’S THE PROOF?????!!!!!!!!!!!

        1. Never mind. It’s satire, as per Henry. I only glanced over it before I posted this link. Had I thoroughly checked it out, I would have known.

  5. Gee….I thought Janet Napolitano said that drones would only be used for surveillance operations. Remember that last year? And we all knew she was full of shit.

    So does that mean Dorner is a terrorist? No wait! He’s an “enemy combatant” to the police. Yeah, that’s it. Now they have an excuse to use a drone in the U.S. to blow him (a U.S. National) away without due process of the law. Will anyone do anything about it? No, clearly not. The sheeple will continue to watch their reality shows and say that this is all normal. So sad.

  6. the cops have already wounded innocent people by shooting at a truck that looks like dorner,s truck. twice this has happened. if the cops are willing to shoot at any truck that looks like the 1 dorner was driving i think the cops are going to do what ever it takes to kill this man and not bring him in for trial. dont think the whole truth isnt being told by the cops.

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