[Lemon:] I want one of these things. Tonight, you know, we are talking about the spies in the sky. Drones over neighborhoods being used to hunt down suspects and go where officers and regular helicopters can't go. So joining me now is William Robinson who is still here. He has been demonstrating this UAV for us. Drone, as we call it. But Ben is in Colorado. So Ben, thank you so much for joining us. Benn, you managed the unmanned aircraft program for the Mesa County, Colorado, sheriff's office.
[Ben Miller, Manager, Unmanned Aircraft Program:] Yes.
[Lemon:] Let me think. What do you think about this argument that these drones pose a threat to a person's personal privacy? I personally, I would like to have one but I wouldn't want this thing flying over my house.
[Miller:] Well, you know, do they present a threat to privacy? Part of that answer is yes and part of that answer is no, that's pretty over exaggerated.
[Lemon:] Well good. What do you mean by that? Tell me.
[Miller:] What I mean by that is, you know, from a law enforcement perspective I've been watching the show so far, you know, as we come up to this. And I'm thinking about it and thinking if I think you made a couple of comments spying on an ex-wife and that kind of thing. That was the situation for me. I would lose my job and shame my family and, you know, I'd be kind of the black sheep of my professional community.
[Lemon:] But the reason I was asking that is because private citizens can buy these and if you're even private investigators, you don't have to be with, you know, a police department to get one of these things. And the concern that I've heard about people spying on their neighbors, spying on their husbands or their wives with their significant others, or having someone check into their personal privacy and they don't have to be a law enforcement agency. That's the reason I ask that.
[Miller:] And yes, that was kind of the second half of my answer was, yes, I would agree with you, that, you know, the general public really doesn't have any kind of administrative management to the use of these things. And you know, there would be some concern.
[Lemon:] Yes. OK well said. But let me ask you this. So, police departments around the country dealing with budget deficits, filing for bankruptcy protection, some of them, do you think he said this was like $50,000. Do you think this is a cost protective pressure for departments? All right. We lost his audio there because he's on Skype. William, what do you think? $50,000, I'm sure the number of police officers that they might have on the street can be doing other things with this and they actually don't have to pay a salary over a long-term and so it may actually be cheaper.
[Robinson:] The point of this is we're not to eliminate jobs if that is where that's going. The point this is you're looking at millions of dollars and that requires a crew, it requires fuel and it requires maintenance. And of course, it requires a very small amount of maintenance but does not require the several hundred dollars in fuel and multimillion dollar investment in an aircraft and this annual salary.
[Lemon:] Listen. He is doing this from a remote control here and it's almost like the helicopter you see the people in the park using, but you can also do this from a computer and from hundreds, if not thousands of miles away.
[Robinson:] This vehicle here is completely capable of 100 percent automated flight. Right now we are controlling it via radio control in the studio because your frequency bands are jam-packed and very busy so we didn't want to risk anything inside the studio here. But this vehicle if we were to take it outdoors or we have more space inside the studio with less frequency and a current, we can flip into a GPS denied mode and still operate upon this thing.
[Lemon:] So, if I'm sitting at home right now, and I'm watching this, how can you this probably is a better question for Ben, but we can't get in touch with Ben because of his audio. I don't know. Maybe it's because of this thing. But how am I going how would you assure me that my privacy not going to be invaded by someone with one of these things?
[Robinson:] That is the measures that are put in place by our laws. Right now, if the warrant is put on an individual, you can watch them from the air via a manned vehicle. So why not do that cheaper and save the taxpayers' money with a smaller vehicle? This is not intended for illegal use.
[Lemon:] Yes. I can't take my eyes off of this. Sorry. I am listening to you but I can't take my eyes off of this UAV as you call it. We call it drones. And these are the ones that are being used and been a bit controversial around the country about police departments using them, whether or not it's OK to go over your home and look into your backyard. And of course, they can do infrared as well but that's not legal. They can actually look in your home. Is that legal now?
[Robinson:] No, no, no. They can't look into a home with an infrared camera.
[Lemon:] Wanted to make sure. All right. Thank you, William. Very cool stuff here, very cool stuff and thanks to Ben as well. So it is the size of an SUV. It weighs nearly a ton and gone 35 million miles and will soon be barreling toward mars at 13,000 miles an hour through the punishing mars atmosphere. We got all kind of gadgets tonight. Details about the incredible rover mission, that's next.