Police In California Deploy Drones To Enforce Coronavirus Quarantine
To help enforce the state-wide coronavirus quarantine, police in Chula Visa, California have deployed Chinese-made patrol drones.
Additionally, the drones come equipped with night-vision cameras and loudspeakers to monitor residents and ensure no one is disobeying the public health restrictions set forth by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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Chula Vista Police Department’s Captain Vern Sallee says, “We have not traditionally mounted speakers to our drones, but … if we need to cover a large area to get an announcement out, or if there were a crowd somewhere that we needed to disperse, we could do it without getting police officers involved. The outbreak has changed my view of expanding the program as rapidly as I can.”
In addition, Spencer Gore, the chief executive Impossible Aerospace — a U.S.-based drone company — adds, “What we saw in China, and what we’re probably going to see around the world, is using drones with cameras and loudspeakers to fly around to see if people are gathering where they shouldn’t be, and telling them to go home. It seems a little Orwellian, but this could save lives.”
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Currently, there are more than 18,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in California, with 35 deaths, per Johns Hopkins.
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