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This summer, George Floyd‘s protests were huge and may be the largest wave of protests in the United States since the 1960s. Almost indisputably, they are also the most watched protests in American history because the police use various tools to track protests and protesters, from social media analysis to body cameras, nothing is more conspicuous (and controversial) than the micro drones launched by law enforcement officials during the 2020 protests.
Data collected from thousands of drones is transported across the United States by thousands of drones. In the absence of a federal structure with regulatory technology, cities and states have formulated a set of rules and regulations on the use of police drones. Together, these rules and regulations demonstrate that the air police safety laws are more transparent and fairer.
Are you worried as to how a police drone looks like? If it is watching you? How to spot it at night? Well, we have got it all covered for you! In this blog, you will read about ways to spot a police drone at night if it is roaming around in your neighbourhood. Let’s begin!
6 Ways to Spot Police Drones at Night
Let’s discuss how police drones can be recognized and what do they look like at night in the United States.
1# Loud Buzzing Sound
While most of the police drones are designed to be silent as compared to other drones in the market, but even with this feature, if they are in an extremely quiet environment, even the most silent drone can be heard, detected and discovered. Unmanned aerial vehicle’s produce different intensity of sounds, but the main source of noise comes from the propellers of the drones, making a humming sound as they move through the air.
If you pay close attention to your surroundings, you do not need special drone detection equipment. Fortunately, the sound of drones is easy to hear at night, because sound waves tend to bend downwards at night. You can sneak closer to the drones by listening to this sound.
2# Look for Flash Lights
UAVs emit light when flying at night, but they are usually very faint. If you are not alert, you will not notice the lights. Some drones emit flashing and non-flashing lights at the same time so that you can spot it when the drone approaches you.
UAV usually does not have dim navigation lights, but bright anti-collision lights so that you can easily locate when the UAV approaches you. The most common light and bright colors in drones are green, white, and red, but they are not limited to these.
3# Make Use of Radar Detectors
This is one of the most accurate drone detection methods at night. The radar detector can detect the drone by analysing the signal reflected by the drone along the radar transmission path. Radar detectors can monitor a larger area, but their installation cost is higher. The radar detector can track a specific direction or all directions as needed. You can discover the drone remotely and determine the distance to your property.
The radar detection systems can easily distinguish between birds, drones or any other flying object so that they do not produce the sound of alarm when they are ready to enter their propagation path. Some high-tech radar detectors are able to provide specific detailed information about all the drones models they have detected in the area.
4# Drone Detection Apps
Fortunately, a smartphone can help you find the drone easily. If you want to use your smartphone to detect drones, just install the drone detection app. There are several applications for drone detection on the Internet. It is designed to capture the unencrypted Wi-Fi signal that the drone uses to communicate with its pilot. After capturing the signal, the app compares it with the database to verify that the signal is indeed from the drone.
Some of these applications can even determine the location of the pilot after comparing the signal with the database. It should be noted that the drone detection application can only detect drones that are less than half a mile away from the pilot’s device such as his phone. In addition, these apps cannot detect drones that do not use any kind of Wi-Fi signals for communication, or drones that use encrypted Wi-Fi.
5# Use Acoustic Sensors
When your room is usually quiet at night, you can also use acoustic sensors to detect drones. The main advantage of acoustic sensors is that they can easily detect drones in the area that lack communication signals and cannot reflect them properly.
Basically, acoustic sensors are qualified to detect all types of spy drones, because all drones make noise when flying, and even the quietest drones will be detected when their propellers start to work as the propellers make sound. By analyzing the sounds that reach them, drone noise can be distinguished among the noise created by other surrounding sources, making them less likely to trigger false alarms.
6# Motion Detection Camera
When you do not have enough time to follow the lights or hear the sound by yourself, one option is to use the motion detection camera to detect the drone near you. In fact, motion detection cameras can usually see drones better than humans through their HD lens. Cameras detect motion by comparing a series of images they take. When motion is detected, the camera will notify you on the app warning you of any interfering objects. Many motion detection cameras are programmed by default to send notifications to your phone directly.
The camera you choose should be able to see objects at night using infrared light instead of visible light. Infrared light makes objects look like ordinary white light that we are familiar with, so you will see pictures of every drone that enters your room, even if the pictures don’t have real colors.
Every coin has two sides. The use of police drones is mainly to make law enforcement and first aid operations easier, safer, and smarter. It serves the same as cops monitoring the community, involving crime investigation, and managing search and rescue. This inevitably causes certain effects on their respective communities. The public may have privacy concerns about police drones no matter at night or day, but the misinformation should be avoided. Actually, the connection between communities and police departments deepens with proper service directions and positive participation by the Police. Police challenge coins are given out to community members for cooperating with law enforcement security and raising safety awareness in the community.
The Final Word
The surveillance of police drones at night is important, but it should be remembered that drones are just one of many surveillance technologies used by police today, from mobile phone tracking tools to facial recognition (from the ground) to monitoring long-term manned aircraft over Baltimore.
The impact of man-machine surveillance of protests has raised questions about other forms of aerial surveillance. Why are the police allowed to regularly deal with potentially dangerous and expensive manned helicopters, and what about the information collected by drones & other aircraft?
Next time, you catch a drone flying over your house or neighborhood late at night, use the above-mentioned ways to detect a police drone or any alien drone around you!
