Dinosaurs VS Flying Robots: The Future of Policing?

[Jubal]

http://www.iflscience.com/technology/dutch-police-are-training-eagles-take-down-drones

The Dutch police have joined forces with Guards From Above, a firm in The Hague who specialize in training birds of prey for private security, to help protect the skies from rogue drones. With some training, the eagles recognize the drones as prey, which they then disable with their talons and return to a safe place.

OK, so the "dinosaurs" was a technicality, but eagles are pretty badass nonetheless.

Thoughts?

[Lizard]

I have lots of thoughts about this. Most of them relate to "how did anyone ever get to thinking about guard-birds in the first place??"


But I take issue with the phrase 'rogue drones'... The drones will be either autonomous, or piloted. Autonomous drones are what we should be frightened of, because in which case it seems our only tool (according to the Dutch) against the robot uprising is eagles? But many drones are not, truly, autonomous.


Piloted drones, as the name implies, have a pilot. If their pilot is AWOL, they'll just spin out of control or fly themselves into a wall = "threat" resolved. If their pilot is malicious and you take out the drone... well, good for you, but without finding the pilot they'll probably just get another drone in the air fairly quickly. They aren't exactly expensive these days, if you've got the will to be committing aerial crime.


So what are the eagles helping with?? I dunno, seems like a huge PR stunt to me. On behalf of whom I don't know - the Dutch tourist board? ("Come visit the Netherlands, we have Robot Wars. But with eagles. IN THE SKY.")

[Jubal]

Depends what the drone is carrying/doing surely. The drone may be cheap, but the attached equipment might not be?

Also, wouldn't having the drone captured potentially help you find the pilot in some cases?

[Lizard]

If it were a custom-build, then of course - but if it's generic, run through a web or app interface (as more and more of them are), you'd have trouble linking the drone to the session to the pilot without probable cause on a specific person (I would imagine, for some reason my Law A-Level never went into Aerial Crime (TM)).


I'm now trying to think of what you could attach to a drone in order to commit crime... the obvious being cameras/microphones, which are not expensive... but I guess you could use it to try and ferry information under the radar? (or on the radar, I suppose, if we're being literal) Like load an SD card with Covert Information, fly it to the drop point, have someone else pick it up? Would be good if you wanted to start some sort of anarchist domestic terrorist group I guess.


WHICH YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY NOT DO.

[Clockwork]

I saw this on the youtubes earlier this week. Like Liz, I'm skeptical as to how an eagle particularity helps. If the drone carries a bomb, wouldn't the eagle just bring it back to whoever sent it out? Or can they drop it to a minimum safe distance? This is where you need microchip-controlled eagles which, by the by, could be a thing in 5-10 years as quantum computing took a step forward towards the end of last year. Although neuromorphic engineering didn't (to my knowledge at least), it's still being researched.
http://futurism.com/new-breakthrough-means-huge-leap-forward-quantum-computing/

[Jubal]

I *think* you could probably train eagles to drop prey at a distance.

But yeah, I think there's unlikely to be much use for this - but I'm not the Dutch police and I'm happy to be wrong, 'cos it is really rather cool.

[Pentagathus]

I heard of people smuggling drugs with drones. I imagine they could be useful for dodgy paparazzi or random alpacas who like to take images of stuff they shouldn't be.

[Jubal]

Yeah, those instances could be solved with a well placed eagle.

[Clockwork]

I'm all for diversifying animals in policing, dogs, horses, eagles... Cats I dunno about though, not an animalist but I might not trust a cat detective.

[Jubal]

"Officer?"
"Yes sir?"
"If the suspects won't comply, release the tortoise."
"But sir-"
"-no buts! Do it, officer!"
"Y-yessir!"

[Clockwork]

hahaaha xD

[Lizard]

I heard of people smuggling drugs with drones. I imagine they could be useful for dodgy paparazzi or random alpacas who like to take images of stuff they shouldn't be.

But this is kinda what I was getting at - the drone itself, if the pilot has any kind of brain, will be fairly hard to trace. So you deal with one drone... then what?


Alls I know is, if *I* were a drug lord, I'd have *several* drones. Not least for case of eagle-attack.

[Jubal]

I guess in terms of high-value drugs or information every shipment you can take out is a worthwhile activity to some extent nonetheless?

[Lizard]

I suppose, but I can't help but feel there's a more efficient solution than the eagles.

[Clockwork]

Also, an easy anti-eagle countermeasure is just a bit of razorwire around the body surely? Unless...Replace the eagles feet with cyberware. portugal yeah man, cyber eagles and armadillo.