Or, at least, Big Eyes in the Sky will soon be watching Britons. So reports the Guardian. See:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/cctv-sky-police-plan-drones

Quotes:

Drones could be used for civilian surveillance in the UK as early as 2012. Source: BAE

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and that officers have talked about SELLING THE SURVEILLANCE DATA TO PRIVATE COMPANIES. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year. (Capitalisation added)

End Quotes

How long before Australia has its own Big Eyes in the Sky?

And can Robocop be far away?

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_robot-border-guards-may-patrol-future-frontiers_1332750

Robo-soldiers are already here:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/israel-building-robot-army-report/story-e6frf7jx-1225818514821

And here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-the-age-of-the-killer-robot-is-no-longer-a-scifi-fantasy-1875220.html

Quote:

In the dark, in the silence, in a blink, the age of the autonomous killer robot has arrived. It is happening. They are deployed. And – at their current rate of acceleration – they will become the dominant method of war for rich countries in the 21st century.

End Quote

Big Brother was with us in the eighties. Sufficient correllation of minor data give something almost as good as orwell's viewscreens.

What semi-autonomous drones do is give us the beginnings of Saberhagen's berserkers, or Harlan Ellison's anti-personnel robots. In both cases, the mechanical counter-force (the "second variety") is the hook in the trope.

If a drone is shot at, netted, damaged etc, what law beyond "destruction of public property" is violated? or will they be "special" like unmanned speed cameras (themselves in contrast to unmanned "driving like a [[profanity deleted]]" cameras which we desperately need).

If the same destruction is by a drone.....

Rusty

I forgot to mention cybernetic swearboxes on every street, semi-autonomously given the power to garnish the fine.

They could tazer free-speaking citizens who used terms like [[profanity deleted]] and [[strenuous profanity deleted]], preventing all and sundry from knowing that normal citizens use these words. Due to programming limitations, "swut" "turlindrome" and "belgium" and [[obscene biological impossibility removed]] might be missed for some time.

The children could thus be prevented from ever hearing or even suspecting that such bleeping nomenclature exists, and get a really evil [[recognised interspecies offensive adverb removed]] shock if they use it all unknowing.

[[disturbing-to-granny handle deleted]]

This is why we need a third political party to stop this nonsense.Farmers now are be contacted whilst out on their properties about vegetation clearance and are being spied on by satellites.Councils all over the planet are spying on the very people they are supposed to serve.Big brother is here under the guise of saving the planet and we must stop facism it now!

It is being supported by the big corporates as well as control freaks in our own Govts.

The important bits of that article are

<<The CAA is currently reluctant to license UAVs in normal airspace because of the risk of collisions with other aircraft>>

<<CAA officials are sceptical that any Herti-type drone manufacturer can develop the technology to make them airworthy for the UK before 2015 at the earliest.>>

Airspace and aircraft are very heavily regulated and controlled. The safety aspects of this are just enormous. How do the pilots? keep a watch for other planes if they are flying by remote control? Can they respond to air traffic control orders in a safe and expedient manner? What happens if one of them gets in the way of a 747 or other heavy aircraft? The air regulators will fight this. The airlines may even be against it if they think the police will be able to close airspace so they can spy on protesters and thus likely inconvenience the airlines and their passengers. And god help them if they ever actually caused a plane crash.

The comments in the Gaurdian showed not to many poms are keen on the idea either. The phrase "police state" kept coming up a lot.

Those the least in favor will be the ones with the most to hide.
They can look as much as they as far as i am concerned. I am guilty of nothing. Hoons and theives every where. Should be a good idea . These things will be in the favor of people that behave themselves, and to the detriment of those who infringe on other peoples freedom.