Unmanned Police: Bad Drones, Bad Drones, Whatcha Gonna Do?

With the recently revelation that Verizon is exploring the construction of a cell-tower-based drone monitoring system with NASA, the issue of UAV traffic control will no doubt become the next hot topic across the industry – especially if Amazon’s vision of delivery drone swarms plying the skyways becomes a reality.

However, some drone enthusiasts aren’t comfortable with a system that marries government power with corporate interests. Why not develop an open-source, grassroots system to monitor drone traffic?

That’s the vision of the Unmanned Police Project. Led by DroneTV.com CEO Claude Rallins, UP is an attempt to crowdsource and self-police drone traffic enforcement in cities based on a “Citizen Watchdog” model.

“The main mission of the [project] is to enforce drone public safety,” Rallins said. “UP will watch the skies above residential and business communities to insure best practices are followed and No Fly Zones are respected.”

Rallins envisions such a citizen police force deploying fast mini-drones and futuristic drone concepts he calls Autonimals — “Autonomous Robotic Animals (like a realistic looking robo-butterfly)” – to keep an eye on a given patch of sky using visual, IR and audio sensors in search of errant drones.

“When a trespassing drone is detected, a fast Unmanned Police mini-drone will pursue-and-position to block its cam view, while taking mug shots, and sending a text alert to the property owner and the local list of “drone citizen police,” Rallins said. If an invading drone fails to leave the restricted airspace, UP contacts local police. UP mini-drones could also track and follow a “rogue drone” back to its owner, who would also be photographed.

“These actions turn the tables to deter future flight violations,” Rallins said.

Although Rallins has not set an expected launch date yet, he says he is the process of recruiting citizen “police” pilots through global Meetups. “Where it goes from there, in terms of which city takes the lead, will be organic,” he said, adding that his own site, DroneTV will provide free video support.

He hopes UnmannedPolice.com will serve as a digital headquarters for the volunteer police force. “[The site] will function as its global, digital Board of Advisers, marshaling resources and expertise in support of locally driven Unmanned Community Policing projects,” he said.

Although the UP will not have the backing of government authority at first, Rallins says the concept could become a public utility over time and would require a level of cooperation among the drone community, local police, utilities and the FAA. “UP wants to use public streetlights as the framework for Drone Air Traffic Control Systems to track and manage drones in community airspace,” Rallins said.

Rallins believes his concept is more viable and less ominous than government-corporate partnerships. “My approach, with UP, simply extends the Citizen Watchdog Group model over the commons and into community airspace.  We, as citizens, finally have the tools to steward the space we occupy,” Rallis said. “Increased technology equals increased social responsibility.”

“Raising taxes significantly to add an airborne layer of government surveillance is a non-starter,” he said. “Letting Verizon or Google “own” the network is deeply problematic as well.”