Miami Beach Police Deploy Drones During Spring Break.

[The Droning Company]

Miami Beach Police Deploy Drones During Spring Break

 

[mavic3usa]

Good luck with that. There's nothing to proud about being the most government surveilled city in the country. After the visitors are gone, all that expensive equipment needs to be used (and likely abused) and that's when those resources are eventually turned against the residents and used against them unless there are strict and strong rules in place (put there by the people not the police) to govern and control drone usage by law enforcement with transparency.

[placeholder for a future story about how the drones have been "re-purposed" for spying on residents, illegally collecting and storing their data, exempting all footage from public records, and other questionable abuses]

 

[Cafguy]

If they spend over 2 million on "rowdy Revelers" I would hate to see the what the "Disturbing the peace Task force" has in the Armory. How much are Taxes in Miami anyway?

 

[Benjo75]

I wonder how close the police follow VLOS. The dept where I live has at least one drone. I've seen it several times covering quite a bit of ground. Unless the operator was above the tree line somehow there's not much of a chance he could see it.

 

[DoomMeister]

Sort of a clue to what US made drones cost!!!

Gotta love Florida for implementing the Blue Drone laws. Most likely could have had 10 times as much for the price of the Skydio system. I’ll never support them after the slap in the face Skydio gave to the prosumer market.

 

[Dale D]

Good luck with that. There's nothing to proud about being the most government surveilled city in the country. After the visitors are gone, all that expensive equipment needs to be used (and likely abused) and that's when those resources are eventually turned against the residents and used against them unless there are strict and strong rules in place (put there by the people not the police) to govern and control drone usage by law enforcement with transparency.

[placeholder for a future story about how the drones have been "re-purposed" for spying on residents, illegally collecting and storing their data, exempting all footage from public records, and other questionable abuses]

As a Miami resident since 1970 (55 years),and I have seen the disruption of the peace that spring breakers can cause to the community. If you do not break the law, there is not much for you to worry about. I have always flown my M3 without difficulty on the beach as well as throughout Miami. I have never had an encounter with law enforcement....fingers crossed. I keep the drone in visual line of sight and high enough to avoid trees but to avoid low flying aircraft, of which there are many. I don't listen to the doom sayers.

 

[Cafguy]

The cost of Skydio Drones is enormous compared to what they are not allowed to use. PLUS Skydio forbids its owners from repair and will not sell parts to consumers! I wouldnt touch one, let alone spend taxpayer money on it.

 

[DagDerniT]

Last year I had a police drone follow me a few miles from a quiet beach all the way back to my RV at a resort in Galveston, Texas. An officer pulled up about 15 minutes later and proceeds to give me a warning on driving the beaches recklessly, which I didn't think I was doing. Said they have me on video doing donuts in my Jeep and I did admit to it and explained I was testing out the new lift kit and big tires, i just had installed. Glad I don't drink as he had me blow in a portable breathalyzer too, lol...

 

[Cafguy]

In Bakersfield Ca. They use 8 DJI Matrices to patrol for Fireworks Violations during the holiday. Last year two of them were flying pretty close to my house, taking video of a few violators near the River.
I have since learned that they are indeed used to watch suspected "criminal" activity. They need a Judges order to do it tho.

 

[MattInFla]

Good luck with that. There's nothing to proud about being the most government surveilled city in the country. After the visitors are gone, all that expensive equipment needs to be used (and likely abused) and that's when those resources are eventually turned against the residents and used against them unless there are strict and strong rules in place (put there by the people not the police) to govern and control drone usage by law enforcement with transparency.

[placeholder for a future story about how the drones have been "re-purposed" for spying on residents, illegally collecting and storing their data, exempting all footage from public records, and other questionable abuses]

Florida has robust laws on the use of drones by law enforcement. Your gloom and doom prediction has not come true.

Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine

 

[mavic3usa]

Florida has robust laws on the use of drones by law enforcement. Your gloom and doom prediction has not come true.

Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine

I think this video properly represents my personal views about this toothless law. Give it time, as drone capabilities increase, more departments gets drones, more citizens become aware, officers and deputies become more proficient and clever at twisting the law, and chiefs/sheriffs get tired of only tracking down drunks on the beach.....they're coming for *you*

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[MattInFla]

I sincerely doubt any text would satisfy you, given your anti-police stance.

I, myself, find Florida’s law quite sufficient.

 

[mavic3usa]

I sincerely doubt any text would satisfy you, given your anti-police stance.

I, myself, find Florida’s law quite sufficient.

Sorry I just need more teeth in the law to not only cover the abuses that are bound to occur but also to account for the technology advances that are coming. Today you don't need to law to defend against a drone that can hover for 24 hours, that can fly from one end of the city limits to the other, and that can use face recognition to collect and store a million terabytes of information plus AI using a camera that can pinpoint from a mile away. If they put a license plate reader on those drones, how do you know they are not sharing that information with the towing companies and the repo agencies? Does the law prohibit that? Do you know if you can submit a public records request at any point and get what you need unhindered, is it that transparent? Sufficient is not enough; it needs to be comprehensive.

I am not anti-police, the business of protecting civil liberties and limiting government always comes off as anti-police. I've been to protest where drones were deployed and the police show up with drones and they fly right in and over the crowd in plain site, trying to intimidate them, collect video they can use later, we'll follow you back to your car, etc. The text in those FL laws are useless when they include so many broad exceptions. But I'm not the one you have to satisfy, it's the People that need to be satisfied and one day, it will probably be you too. No law is perfect so personally, I wouldn't mind if they wiped out the entire text of that law and replaced it with "Obey the Constitution" and left it at that.

 

[Chip]

I wonder how close the police follow VLOS. The dept where I live has at least one drone. I've seen it several times covering quite a bit of ground. Unless the operator was above the tree line somehow there's not much of a chance he could see it.

Not very close. Although technically they are required by law to follow the rule or get a waiver from the FAA which some do. Here is perhaps an example although we need to ask @DagDerniT how certain he is the drone followed him for a few miles home as opposed to simply checked the plate on his vehicle at the beach.

Last year I had a police drone follow me a few miles from a quiet beach all the way back to my RV at a resort in Galveston, Texas. An officer pulled up about 15 minutes later and proceeds to give me a warning on driving the beaches recklessly, which I didn't think I was doing. Said they have me on video doing donuts in my Jeep and I did admit to it and explained I was testing out the new lift kit and big tires, i just had installed. Glad I don't drink as he had me blow in a portable breathalyzer too, lol...

 

[MattInFla]

Sorry I just need more teeth in the law to not only cover the abuses that are bound to occur but also to account for the technology advances that are coming. Today you don't need to law to defend against a drone that can hover for 24 hours, that can fly from one end of the city limits to the other, and that can use face recognition to collect and store a million terabytes of information plus AI using a camera that can pinpoint from a mile away. If they put a license plate reader on those drones, how do you know they are not sharing that information with the towing companies and the repo agencies? Does the law prohibit that? Do you know if you can submit a public records request at any point and get what you need unhindered, is it that transparent? Sufficient is not enough; it needs to be comprehensive.

I am not anti-police, the business of protecting civil liberties and limiting government always comes off as anti-police. I've been to protest where drones were deployed and the police show up with drones and they fly right in and over the crowd in plain site, trying to intimidate them, collect video they can use later, we'll follow you back to your car, etc. The text in those FL laws are useless when they include so many broad exceptions. But I'm not the one you have to satisfy, it's the People that need to be satisfied and one day, it will probably be you too. No law is perfect so personally, I wouldn't mind if they wiped out the entire text of that law and replaced it with "Obey the Constitution" and left it at that.

Not sure what Constitutional issues you think are implicated by the police operating a drone in a public place, observing people gathering in groups of 50 or more in that public place.

Whether the loiter time is 24 minutes, 24 hours, or 24 days is not germane to that kind of operation. They could just as easily - and completely lawfully - put a camera on a light pole and observe the same things.

In short, the law is compliant with the Constitution in all respects.

 

[mavic3usa]

In short, the law is compliant with the Constitution in all respects.

Then that's all anyone can ask for; no worries.

 

[Chip]

In short, the law is compliant with the Constitution in all respects.

Maybe or maybe not. But even if its not unconstitutional on its face as written, it may be applied in an unconstitutional manner. Consider what happened in Ferguson MO in 2014. The FAA agreed to issue a TFR at the request of local police for the stated purpose of blocking media access. Local police did not want the press to report what was happening from the advantage of the air.



The only reason it was caught is because the FAA recorded its phone calls with the police which were obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. I wonder if the FAA recorded all of its phone calls with whoever requested the 22 New Jersey TFRs in 2024? The FAA's sole justification was "security" as requested by an unnamed "partner."

 

[dave canada]

The cost of Skydio Drones is enormous compared to what they are not allowed to use. PLUS Skydio forbids its owners from repair and will not sell parts to consumers! I wouldnt touch one, let alone spend taxpayer money on it.

amen

 

[jaja6009]

I wonder how close the police follow VLOS. The dept where I live has at least one drone. I've seen it several times covering quite a bit of ground. Unless the operator was above the tree line somehow there's not much of a chance he could see it.

Most public safety agencies fly under Part 91 with a Certificate of Authorization that could include OOP, BVLOS. But a recent addition is flying under Part 107 with a First Responder Waiver.

 

[mavic3usa]

Here's another example and the problem I have for this particular deployment is with the company they are doing business with (check their history):

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies