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Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

denverpost.com

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Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#21
Alternate Article:

https://sputniknews.com/us/201912241077783862-its-not-santa-...

This sounds like a commercial operation. They're obeying the law, staying below 400ft, and operating in a rural area. It seems like the news articles are doing their best to make this sound bad when there's nothing nefarious going on.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#22
post #17
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but they also would seem to be less likely to have insurance and more likely, as a result, to guard their property with some level of force?

All cannabis farms I've seen (n>500) have insurance, expensive policy but they still have it. And they are obligated by state law to report any theft

avs is talking about less-than-legal operations which are more likely and incentivized to use less-than legal force to guard their operation.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#23

Alternate Article: https://sputniknews.com/us/201912241077783862-its-not-santa-... This sounds like a commercial operation. They're obeying the law, staying below 400ft, and operating in a rural area. It seems like the news articles are doing their best to make this sound bad when there's nothing nefarious going on.

“Obeying the law and not nefarious” doesn’t always mean good.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#24

Alternate Article: https://sputniknews.com/us/201912241077783862-its-not-santa-... This sounds like a commercial operation. They're obeying the law, staying below 400ft, and operating in a rural area. It seems like the news articles are doing their best to make this sound bad when there's nothing nefarious going on.

> They're obeying the law

The article states that small drones must be flown during daylight hours according to the regulations. These drones are flown at night, which means they would be in violation of those rules.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#25

Sounds like a good way for criminals to find illegal grow ops.

I know neither farming nor IR technology so let me ask: is there really publicly available technology that allows a person to identify a crop at a few hundred feet at those speeds in the dark from a drone?

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#26

Alternate Article: https://sputniknews.com/us/201912241077783862-its-not-santa-... This sounds like a commercial operation. They're obeying the law, staying below 400ft, and operating in a rural area. It seems like the news articles are doing their best to make this sound bad when there's nothing nefarious going on.

> They're obeying the law The article states that small drones must be flown during daylight hours according to the regulations. These drones are flown at night, which means they would be in violation of those rules.

These drones don’t sound like small drones, and the article points out that these are likely over 55 lbs, and therefore subject to different regulations.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#27

Alternate Article: https://sputniknews.com/us/201912241077783862-its-not-santa-... This sounds like a commercial operation. They're obeying the law, staying below 400ft, and operating in a rural area. It seems like the news articles are doing their best to make this sound bad when there's nothing nefarious going on.

> They're obeying the law The article states that small drones must be flown during daylight hours according to the regulations. These drones are flown at night, which means they would be in violation of those rules.

The article also suggests that these are not small drones and thus likely not covered under the regulations mentioned.

Also, from the article: "they emerge each night around 7 p.m. and disappear around 10 p.m.". 7-10 p.m. isn't night, it's evening. Yes, in the US it's (probably?) dark by then this time of the year, but maybe they're following some regulation that is defined in terms of time of the day, and not the amount of daylight?

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#28

Sounds like a good way for criminals to find illegal grow ops.

I know neither farming nor IR technology so let me ask: is there really publicly available technology that allows a person to identify a crop at a few hundred feet at those speeds in the dark from a drone?

If it's an indoor grow, then the tried and true method is to look for unusual heat sources. E.g. a house with a roof that's bright in IR, where all the neighboring roofs are dark. If it's an outdoor grow, I have no idea.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#29

Off topic, but in Reader View the page seems to apply a Caesar Cipher with shift one on the content after a couple of seconds to make reading annoying.

Do you have Adblock extensions? For another data point, I’m using iOS/safari through a Pi-hole and see the article fine. I wonder if it’s triggered by certain extensions.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#30

Seems like this is the new norm and while I do feel the skies should be free to an extent I know this would concern me if it were happening over my head.

Just out of curiosity, why would it concern you? I live in a semi-rural tourism-heavy town and get a fair few drones in the vicinity of my house due to a major tourist site nearby, and it never really bothers me unless they fly low enough for the sound to get annoying.
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