Town of Paradise Valley, AZ —If you don’t like cameras pointed at you, you'd better learn to smile.  They are here to stay watching, documenting and exposing all of your public behavior to the world. With the new consumer camera drone technology the camera shy folks are in paranoia overdrive.  These people seem to have forgotten that cameras are watching them 24/7 everywhere. From the time you leave your front door until you return cameras are constantly watching you.  Some you can see and there are many others you can’t. For example if you enter the Town of Paradise Valley, Arizona in a vehicle a camera concealed in a cactus grabs the license plate number. It’s placed in a searchable database that allows the town government to know each vehicle’s exact movements.  There are live cameras capturing and saving video everywhere.  Some store video for a short time others keep video indefinitely only limited by the size of their hard drives. Fr...

Los Angeles, CA —As Crimefile News prepares to cover the first ever Drone Expo here on Saturday, we are watching as more corporate and business refugees are fleeing this once great nation.   Americans are also renouncing their citizenship now, more than ever before. Currently drone hobbyists have no licensing or training requirements to fly their drones.   T he only FAA restrictions currently are in the form of somewhat vague “guidelines”.   They suggest maximum altitudes of 400 feet, staying three miles or more from airports and keeping visual contact with the drone. Frankly the hobbyists have already proven that civilian drones really pose no threat to Americans, their safety or privacy.   The only hard and fast enforceable civilian drone regulation is that they can’t be used to earn or generate money.   Of course the government can’t realize any income tax revenue from drone operators either.   Civilian multi-rotor drones cur...

Los Angeles, CA –Nearly everywhere there are some frightened members of Congress, various state legislatures and city councils that are considering ways to ban or severely regulate the little multi-rotor camera drones.   Must we always adopt the Chicken Little fear that the sky is falling ? The FAA would like to expand their budget and manpower by at least tenfold or more to regulate every 12 year-old boy with a camera drone in America.   Can the FAA be trusted to not create or engage hysteria when they have so much to gain?   We all know the answer to that! Pilots everywhere, especially those flying helicopters see the very clear handwriting on the wall.   Inexpensive and substantially safer drones will soon replace half of them. Careers are at stake here .   Should we be surprised those pilots are making the most noise condemning camera drone?    Fighting camera and delivery drones through propaganda scare tactics is already i...

Phantom 2 Quadcopter Los Angeles, CA —There is a bit of a debate going on involving one of technology’s newer gifts.  The somewhat inexpensive, Unmanned Aircraft System ( UAS ) drones are here.  Are they really a threat to your privacy?  I have the answer for you. As most of my readers know, I’m a licensed private investigator.  I now have my own Air Force consisting of two consumer type camera-armed drones!  Can these gee wiz gizmos help me learn more about the people I’m investigating?  The answer is, not really. First of all the devices are limited significantly by their power sources.  They are battery operated.  The longest they can stay in the air currently is under 25 minutes.  They may be quiet but are visible especially at night because of their running lights.  The lights must stay on or the pilot can’t see or control it.   For surveillance they are worthless because of the short flight time.  Tr...

Yep, I'm a gun owner standing here with a loaded S&W .44 Magnum.  I must ask," Do ya feel lucky punk?  Well do ya?"  Phoenix, AZ —I personally wrote no less that 14 bills to legalize the carrying of concealed weapons in Arizona.  There was one bill for every year until it finally passed.   I relentlessly lobbied the Arizona Legislature along with Landis Aden from the Arizona State Rifle Association .  It was a long and challenging battle.  I can remember the stiff opposition from even the Republican leadership.  The late Senator Jackie Steiner emotionally warned me, “Your bill will bring shootouts to every traffic accident in Arizona!”  I quietly informed the good Senator that Arizona law already allowed people to keep loaded guns in their automobile glove compartments.  Steiner vowed to do something about that but thankfully never followed up on the threat.  I did not write the final bill that passed but it ...