U.S. Police Use Chinese Drones to Enforce Social Distancing
Police in Elizabethtown, N.J., are using drones to spy on citizens in areas patrol cars cannot reach. Authorities claim the drones are not taking pictures or collecting evidence, but failure to comply with their orders could lead to a summons or $1,000 fine. Even worse, the drones come from a Chinese company that sent similar drones across the country — and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has warned that data collected on these Chinese-owned drones could be compromised and sent back to Beijing.
“The drones make it easier for police to see into certain areas where access by patrol cars is more difficult. That includes tight spaces between buildings, behind schools, and backyards,” an MSNBC anchor explained in a segment on Friday. “Failure to comply could lead to a summons or a thousand dollar fine.” . . .
DHS warned that Chinese-made drones may be sending sensitive flight data back to their manufacturers in China, where the Communist Party-dominated government can access it. The DHS sent an alert last May warning about the drones, almost a year before American mayors decided to use DJI drones to enforce social distancing measures to fight the coronavirus.
According to CNN, nearly 80 percent of the drones used in the U.S. and Canada come from DJI, which is headquartered in Shenzhen, China.
“The United States government has strong concerns about any technology product that takes American data into the territory of an authoritarian state that permits its intelligence services to have unfettered access to that data or otherwise abuses that access,” the alert stated. “Those concerns apply with equal force to certain Chinese-made (unmanned aircraft systems)-connected devices capable of collecting and transferring potentially revealing data about their operations and the individuals and entities operating them, as China imposes unusually stringent obligations on its citizens to support national intelligence activities.” (Read more from “U.S. Police Use Chinese Drones to Enforce Social Distancing” HERE)
Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE
