A California police department’s drone program helped officers track down and arrest a suspected repeat shoplifter who attempted to flee on a stolen bicycle Tuesday morning and might otherwise have gotten away, officials said.
The incident happed at a Walmart in Clovis, California, where police were called just after 8 a.m. for a known shoplifting suspect. The department’s “Drone First Responder” (DFR) program proved crucial in the arrest, officials said.
“The suspect at Walmart stole a bicycle from inside the store, which the staff thought he would, and he took off on that bike,” Clovis Police Public Information Officer Ty Wood told ABC News Fresno station.
The suspect, identified by police as 19-year-old Sean Baker, was tracked by the drone as he crossed a nearby street. He now faces charges including shoplifting, possession of burglary tools and obstructing an officer, according to police.
The police spokesperson told ABC News that the department’s DFR program currently operates two drones, which can cover more than 90% of community. The department has already ordered a third drone for next year, the spokesperson said.
“We realize that drones are not going to be taking the place of a law enforcement helicopter, but with a city our size, we can’t afford a helicopter. These drone first responders are definitely a game changer,” the spokesperson told ABC News.
The drones, which typically fly at 200 feet, are equipped with advanced camera systems.
“These cameras are fantastic,” Wood told ABC30. “We have the ability to see license plates and get physical descriptions of suspects.”
A key advantage of the program is the drones’ ability to arrive at scenes before officers. The spokesperson said responding officers can view live drone footage from their patrol car computers while en route to calls.
The suspect “went behind other retail businesses and he would have been lost if it weren’t for the drone,” Wood told ABC30.
The department, which serves a community of over 129,000 residents, launched its drone program in 2020, according to the spokesperson. The initiative has since become an important part of the department’s Real Time Information Center (RTIC), which combines various surveillance systems used for public safety.
Ok, we need to ally with Russia to topple/flatten the states supporting chat control and feed their politicians to a very large blender
Yikes…
Or they can give up chat control right now, they can give up that BS a-n-y-t-i-m-e
But if not, then taking out Russia and mildly inconveniencing states that are developping an authoritarian bent in their digital space, that’s a win-win
My point is that you’re arguing that Russia (which is currently ruled by a genocidal, authoritarian regime and is trying to force all of its citizens onto state-controlled social media to monitor everyone) would be a good ally in the fight to keep E2EE alive.
The amount of cognitive dissonance in your comments is disturbing
The only counter we currently have to state power is leveraging other states, getting them to fight one another until they’re so damage that they let go of their fascistic plans to enslave and tag the entire population. Russia isn’t going to politely send delegate to advocate against total state surveillance, they’re doing it, every state is turning fasch and doing it. They are to embolden, to empowered and they don’t respect of fear the population.
The only way to counter this trend is by distracting them with an existential crisis. They need “something” to save us from, when we are too safe and they are too powerful, they start treating us, as the enemy, as their pets, as their farm animal, cattle, we can’t stop them doing that but we can send them to clash against enemy states to dissipate their violent, dominating, malignant energy