drones

The Macomb County sheriff's office has launched a new unmanned aerial vehicle unit with four drones.

Officials say the drones are able to search for missing persons and be used in rescues, hostage situations, traffic crashes and crime scene investigations.

They are equipped with high-resolution cameras that can capture both aerial photos and video.

One unit has a thermal imaging camera, which can be used to search for someone in a wooded area or water.

You know when you really need frozen yogurt, but you wish it could be delivered aerially? Yeah. We've all been there. 

Thankfully, guys like Jeremy Latchaw are here to end our long national nightmare. Latchaw, conveniently, happens to own both a drone company and two Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt stores. Yesterday at Hope College,  he made what he's calling the "first ever" fro-yo delivery by drone.

"It seemed like a pretty good mesh of the two companies to see how it'd work, and so far, no glitches," Latchaw says. "It went off without a hitch."

John Hoadley says he doesn't want people in Michigan trying  what he's seen people do in YouTube videos: mount a remote-controlled gun on a drone, and fly it.

"When we think about the fact that these drones are now potentially flying over our homes or schools where our kids or neighbors are," says the Democratic state representative from Kalamazoo, "it's  appropriate to have a framework that says, while there are very cool pieces of this new technology, it would be inappropriate to have flying guns in the state of Michigan."

A state house committee is expected to vote tomorrow on a bill banning civilians from flying drones over active police investigations.

The state House Criminal Justice committee meets Tuesday morning to discuss HB 4868.  The bill would make it a misdemeanor to fly a drone in a way that interferes with a law enforcement officer, firefighter or utility worker.  If found guilty, the person flying the drone could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.  

Sgt. Tim Fitzgerald is with the Michigan State Police.  He says drones could pose a security problem. 

Drones have many uses. But Michigan lawmakers want to discourage one in particular: delivering contraband to state prison inmates.

Across the country in recent months, people trying to smuggle all kinds of things into prisons have turned to drones. 

Legislation in Lansing would make it a crime to fly a drone around the state Capitol building without a permit.

The Michigan State Capitol Commission is responsible for maintaining the Capitol grounds, and it voted unanimously on Monday to ban remote-controlled aerial vehicles from flying over the building.

Consumers Energy launched an unmanned aerial vehicle for the first time yesterday, becoming the first energy company in Michigan to receive approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to test the machine. 

UAVs, commonly known as drones, are aircraft that fly without a human pilot. 

The City Council of Ferndale will discuss an ordinance tonight that would ban drones from the Detroit suburb's airspace. The proposed ban would not apply to law enforcement, and people would be able to fly drones over their own property.

The ordinance says unmanned drones raise privacy and public safety concerns. 

The Michigan State Police has become the first law enforcement agency with permission to use a drone statewide.

The state police purchased a drone in September 2013.

Since then, the agency has been working with the Federal Aviation Administration to meet safety and training requirements.

Got a drone you want to test? 

Now you’ve got a place in Michigan to do just that, whether the drone is for military, commercial or academic use.  

Peace activists plan to rally against the nation’s military drone program outside the gates of the Battle Creek Air National Guard base on Saturday.

Just this week, a pair of U.S. drone attacks killed sixteen people in Pakistan.  It’s the first attacks this year.     

Brian Terrell is with Voices for Creative Nonviolence.   He says the drone program is being abused.