A smartphone app which has been on our radar screen for the past year is now available in Spanish with new features and to a whole new audience: undocumented immigrants who may need help before, during and after a raid from ICE. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

The app, called Cell 411 is a smartphone app available for both Android and iOS platforms; it allows users to organize themselves in regional “cells” or groups which are decentralized and managed by the users themselves. The cells can have as little as 2 members and as many as 1,000 members or more, allowing users who are in distress to alerts the rest of the cell of the nature of their problem and the exact location of where they need help.  When sending out an alert, the users’s GPS coordinates are broadcast to their trusted friends and cell members with turn by turn direction to their location.  This allows in essence for the crowd-sourcing of emergencies without the involvement of police, which are often not trusted by communities of immigrants and minorities.

The startup, Cell 411 Inc. was founded by Virgil Vaduva, who is an immigrant himself, after being arrested during an anti-police brutality protest after which he had no means to alert his family and friends of what happened and his whereabouts. The app was built as a decentralized means of helping communities and neighborhoods organize themselves to offer each other mutual aid in case of emergencies without asking for assistance from government, police and other state agencies.

You can also create private cells which are only visible to you an not other users, and you can add your friends to your private cells.

The bluetooth button from Cell 411 Inc.

The app allows you to send emergency alerts about medical problems, police abuse, vehicle problems, crime, and other issues; the alerts are tagged with your exact GPS coordinates and your friends can get turn-by-turn directions to your location, should they decide to come and offer you help.  You can stream live video to your cells and friends, and the video cannot be erased by a malicious user who may gain access to your phone.  The video can also be streamed to YouTube and Facebook and is distributed instantly to all your friends, making it nearly impossible to be destroyed.

The app also has a ride-sharing feature available and real-time chat between cell members, allowing users to discuss how an event unfolds in real time in order to offer help as necessary. (Note: chat feature will be released on March 3)

Last year the company introduced a bluetooth panic button, which can be worn on a wrist, key-chain or a belt clip and allows users to send our an emergency alert much faster, without having to unlock or touch their smart phone.

Available in Spanish, English, German, Portuguese and Romanian, the app is free and does not carry any service cost associated with the use.

It can be downloaded from http://getcell411.com/download

The short video below describes how Cell 411 works and how it can help communities engage in mutual aid activities.

Another walkthrough video also goes into more details on how the app functions.

A small startup that has been around for less than a year has created a free mobile app aimed at helping Americans and people all over the world resist the police state.  The app, called Cell 411 (or Cell 112 in Europe), is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Romanian, and it helps activists and people from all political shades resist government abuse with decentralized GPS-based alerts and live video features. Whether you are a gun-rights activist, an anti-Trump protester, concerned with police brutality or simply a muslim woman concerned for her safety, this app can help you build decentralized groups, or “cells” of trusted connections which you can then use to dispatch when you need help.

Because this app has been so revolutionary in its approach to building a new way to handle emergencies and the police state, it has been selected by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London to be featured in the “Future of Design” exhibit in 2018.

Think of this app as an “UBER for emergencies” or a “911 on steroids” except it doesn’t involve government, police or people  you don’t trust.  The app was created by a small group of passionate engineers, activists and people concerned with the growth of police state all over the world.  It can be used by anyone with an Android or iOS smartphone and it has tens of thousands of users all over the world.

Here is how it works: users can freely download the app and signup for an account using their e-mail address of Facebook account. Once signed up, a user can join existing public “cells” or groups in their areas, or can create their own cells.  Joining a cell allows you to send and receive emergency alerts from the members of that cell.  Let’s say you want to create a cell in your town called, “Denver Mutual Aid.”  Al users in the Denver area will be notified when this cell was created and can join the cell in order to offer each other help when the members request the help.  There are thousands of cells all over the world used by users for many reasons, such as immigration help, neighborhood watching, etc.

You can also create private cells which are only visible to you an not other users, and you can add your friends to your private cells.

The app allows you to send emergency alerts about medical problems, police abuse, vehicle problems, crime, and other issues; the alerts are tagged with your exact GPS coordinates and your friends can get turn-by-turn directions to your location, should they decide to come and offer you help.  You can stream live video to your cells and friends, and the video cannot be erased by a malicious user who may gain access to your phone.  The video can also be streamed to YouTube and Facebook and is distributed instantly to all your friends, making it nearly impossible to be destroyed.

The app was specifically designed to be resistant to censorship and government surveillance and has been used successfully all over the world to save lives and keep users safe from criminals, police abuse and many other malicious actors.

The company also created a “panic button” which is a bluetooth device that pairs with the mobile app and allows users to issue alerts instantly without having to unlock the phone or spend precious time navigating an app. Recently a “ride sharing” feature was also added to the app to allow users to offer rides to each other when they need help and accept payments for cash, Bitcoin, silver and even bartering.

You can download Cell 411 for Android and Apple devices from http://getcell411.com/download

You can also watch a quick walk-trough of the main features of this app below:

Update: Since the publication of this article, Facebook removed and blocked Cell 411 from allowing users to post live video to their own walls; the company is now trying to find a work around the Facebook block and still allow users to present live video streams to Facebook friends.

Startup Cell 411 Inc. (getcell411.com) has created a mobile app that makes it virtually impossible for governments, police and criminals to erase video which could serve as evidence of a crime or abuse.  The app, called Cell 411, has been around for a number of months but the newly-released version has features that are unseen in any other mobile apps used by activists, aiming to fight censorship and also criminal activity.

One recent glaring example of police censoring and blocking an abuse victim from streaming live video of police violence is the recent police shooting and death of Korryn Gaines, which was visited by a SWAT team over an unpaid traffic fine. During the standoff, the police ordered that Facebook turn off Gaines’ Facebook and Instagram accounts in an effort to prevent her from streaming live video to her friends. The police shot and killed Gaines and shot her young child who was hospitalized. Without access to social media, the victim had no opportunity to record and stream what transpired in her apartment.

Cell 411 is an emergency management platform and mobile app, which allows users to alert trusted contacts in case of an emergency. Whether it is a medical emergency, a car break-down, police interaction or government abuse, the app can alert trusted contacts in real time with the type and exact location of the emergency, allowing users to avoid interaction with police if possible and only involve individuals they trust. The app has been gaining traction in crime-ridden countries like South Africa and has been used to build neighborhood watch groups and also activist groups throughout the world.

Furthermore, Cell 411 allows users to stream live video and audio to potentially thousands or tens of thousands of users allowing them to download the video streamed by a friend to a local device.  The video can be distributed to large numbers of users in real time, making it impossible to be completely erased from any servers.  To add to this impressive list of features, the latest release will allow users to stream live video to their own Facebook wall, their own YouTube Live channel, and the Cell 411 official TV channels on Facebook and YouTube.  These features increase the distribution footprint for video streams, making it even more difficult for evidence to be removed or erased. The video is also saved on the local device in case a forensic copy needs to be recovered at a later time.

“Shortly after the shooting of Philando Castile, police officers confiscated his fiancee’s smart phone and attempted to erase the footage by accessing her Facebook account and removing the Facebook Live video she recorded,” said Virgil Vaduva, founder of Cell 411, “not to mention the recent example of Korryn Gaines who had her Facebook and Instagram accounts suspended by police shortly before police shot and killed her and shot her five year old son,” said Vaduva.

“While it is illegal to do so, there have been numerous cases of both criminals and government employees attempting to destroy recorded video evidence from devices or social media accounts or prevent users from recording and streaming video of alleged abuse. Our platform allows users to create a wide and decentralized network for distribution of video in real time to a large number of trusted users, making it very difficult if not impossible to destroy,” said Vaduva.

The Cell 411 app allows users to stream video to connected Cell 411 users, save it to the local device if the user’s device lacks an Internet connection, stream it to Facebook, YouTube and other distribution platforms the users choose to engage. The video cannot be erased from the platform once it is streamed and it can be downloaded by any of the trusted contacts chosen by the user.

While Cell 411 has received wide criticism from law enforcement, with Police One claiming that it endangers the lives of police officers, the app has also become extremely popular throughout the world and has been selected by the Victoria & Albert Museum to be featured in the Future of Design Exhibit in London in 2017. The exhibit will feature objects, ideas and designs which are likely to influence the future of mankind in a positive way.

The company denies that the app is aimed solely to law enforcement and points out how it is being widely used by neighborhood watch groups and families to keep each other safe in emergencies.

“We are simply building a platform to make the world a little bit better and safer, and encourage users to interact with each other on a voluntary basis. Good ideas don’t require force in order to be adopted, and users are voluntarily choosing our app because they want a non-violent way to solve conflict and keep each other safe,” said Vaduva.

The company has ambitious plans for growth and is planning to build a world-wide drone fleet and adding features to allow users to dispatch monitoring drones to locations where violence is likely to take place or medical response is necessary.

Users can download Cell 411 from http://getcell411.com

Police officers in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, are lawyering up after the city council voted to rescind medals of valor handed out to the SWAT team in 2013.

What did the SWAT team do to earn those valorous medals? They stormed into the home of 107-year old Monroe Isadore, shot him to death—and then successfully dodged a state investigation of the incident.

Nearly three years after the incident, the city council voted unanimously this month to revoke the medals. As of Monday, however, the police force has yet to return the medals and is seeking legal counsel to challenge the city’s decision, according to local TV station KATV.

“I don’t understand the rationale, I don’t understand why anyone would want a medal, who can you show it to? Oh, I have a medal of valor, well were you in the war? No, I killed a 107-year-old man…you know…who would want that?”Councilwoman Thelma Walker told KATV, the local ABC affiliate.

Walker sponsored the resolution, which said conferring medals and awards “in the aftermath of such a sensitive and emotionally charged event is unconscionable and reprehensible and should not be sanctioned by the City of Pine Bluff.”

Awarding those medals seems to have been done in secret. Isadore’s children were unaware the medals even existed until the city council voted to rescind them, and the city won’t say how many were actually given or who made the decision to award them, according to KATV.

Asked about the city’s decision to revoke the medals, Pine Bluff Police Chief Jeff Hubanks told the Pine Bluff Commercialthe department was “going to talk to an attorney” and declined further comment.

It’s unclear whether the city has the legal authority to strip the medals. City Attorney Althea Hadden-Scott told theCommercial that the council resolution is not binding and lacks enforcement authority.

Isadore was killed on September 8, 2013. Police responded to a call and found him in his bedroom with a gun—his family later said he was upset about being moved to an assisted living community.

After safely evacuating two other people from the house, the cops used negotiation tactics and smoke bombs in an unsuccessful attempt to get Isadore to surrender.

When that failed, they called in the county SWAT team. When SWAT officers broke down the door to Isadore’s bedroom, he fired at them and they returned fire, killing him.

Although the shooting might have been justified since Isadore reportedly fired at the cops first, it appears that police escalated the situation to a point where a violent ending was nearly unavoidable. It was not a hostage situation and Isadore was not a threat to anyone but himself, at least until officers forced their way into his room. Was sending in a SWAT team to use deadly force against a 107-year old man really the best option available?

It’s doubtful that any answers will be forthcoming. Nearly three years later, even with awareness of police violence at higher levels, it’s unlikely that there will ever be a full investigation of the circumstances that led to Isadore Monroe’s death.

The officer who killed Isadore was placed on paid leave, and his or her name was never released to the public. The state police declined an invitation to investigate the incident and subsequent attempts by Isadore’s family to have the shooting investigated went nowhere.

(Lawyers’ fees for the cops are being covered by the local Fraternal Order of Police, so the police are not costing taxpayers anything by refusing to comply with an order issued by the local government that, theoretically, controls them.)

But even if accountability is out of reach, is it too much to ask that police officers not be feted like they returned home from a war zone after gunning down a confused centenarian?

Isadore’s daughter, Paula Aguilar, told KATV that she doesn’t think the honors were deserved. “I looked up `valor,’ and I’m like, `No, that doesn’t fit to what they did to my dad.”

Published by Reason.com

Ohio Democratic state Sen. Cecil Thomas, who is a former Cincinnati police officer, said Wednesday he will introduce a bill to give cities local control over open- or concealed-carry rules during events of regional or national significance.  The bill in essence would give local politicians and city governments the power to strip Ohioans of their 2nd Amendment rights during events deemed appropriate by these government employees.

Cecil Thomas, a former Cincinnati cop declined to offer additional comments regarding the constitutionality of his proposal or how this law would conflict with the needs of self defense that citizens may have especially in the emergency situations specified by the law.

The proposal comes on the heels of the head of Cleveland’s largest police union calling on Ohio Gov. John Kasich to temporarily restrict the state’s open carry gun laws during this week’s Republican National Convention.

Stephen Loomis the president of Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association said, “I don’t care if it’s constitutional or not at this point” and proposed that the Ohio Governor temporarily suspends the rights of Americans to carry firearms for self defense. The statement drew mocking and criticism on social media from enthusiastic gun owners, calling Stephen Looming an “oath breaker” and asking for his resignation.

“The idea the cops are enthusiastically defending our constitutional rights is a myth,” said Virgil Vaduva of Ohio Open Carry, an organization promoting and defending the rights of Ohioans to openly carry firearms.  “It is very clear that more often than not police take a stand against our 2nd Amendment rights. Police unions testified against the concealed carry law passed here in Ohio, they are openly advocating suspending Constitutional rights in Cleveland and now a former cop is proposing a law to that end. Clearly these cops who are in positions of authority are not only openly violating their oaths, but they are in fact proud of doing so,” said Vaduva.

Cecil Thomas refused to answer questions about this proposal.  His Ohio Senate office can be reached at (614) 466-5980 or on his website.

The head of Cleveland’s largest police union is calling on Ohio Gov. John Kasich to temporarily restrict the state’s open carry gun laws during this week’s Republican National Convention following Sunday’s shooting in Louisiana that killed three officers and wounded at least three others.

“We are sending a letter to Gov. Kasich requesting assistance from him. He could very easily do some kind of executive order or something — I don’t care if it’s constitutional or not at this point,” Stephen Loomis, president of Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, told CNN. “They can fight about it after the RNC or they can lift it after the RNC, but I want him to absolutely outlaw open-carry in Cuyahoga County until this RNC is over.”

State law in Ohio allows for licensed firearm owners to wear their weapons in public. With the exception of a small “secure zone” inside and around the Quicken Loans Arena, residents, delegates and protesters are legally permitted to walk around the city — including within its 1.7 square mile regulated “event zone” — with any firearm not explicitly banned by the state.

Kasich, responding to the request, said: “Ohio governors do not have the power to arbitrarily suspend federal and state constitutional rights or state laws as suggested.”

“The bonds between our communities and police must be reset and rebuilt — as we’re doing in Ohio — so our communities and officers can both be safe. Everyone has an important role to play in that renewal,” he said.

Earlier, he released a video offering his condolences in the wake of the Baton Rouge attack.

It turns out that Cell 411 Inc., the makers behind the emergency response app Cell 411 are concerned that demonstrators at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland may be assaulted and abused by police during the convention. To the dismay of many Cleveland political activists, the Cleveland Police have taken measures to handle a massive number of arrests daily. The City has plans to process up to 1,000 arrests per day, which raised eyebrows from community activists.

Cleveland also paid ahead of time $250,000 to reserve 200 extra jail rooms in the Cuyahoga County jail, according to the Republican National Committee budget.

When asked about the preparations, Calvin Williams, the Cleveland police chief said, “We don’t want anybody to trample on anybody else’s rights,” but did not clarify if he will make use of the preparations to arrest and incarcerate such a large number of people.

Virgil Vaduva, founder of Cell 411 also expressed concern at the news of police expanding their footprint: “America has a rich history of political dissent, and the heavy police presence, surveillance cameras and free speech exclusion areas are not indicators that this tradition of freedom of speech will be respected.”

Vaduva also explained how his company is planning on protecting activists during the RNC demonstrators saying, “We have created an official RNC public cell in Cleveland that anyone can join so that activists in the area can issue real-time alerts should they experience abuse at the hands of police.  We have also upgraded our server capacity for live video streaming, so activists using Cell 411 can stream live video to the entire RNC cell to ensure police accountability and prevent police from erasing any evidence of abuse and wrongdoing.”

Cell 411 is a mobile app which was created to allow individuals to respond and issue emergencies to trusted friends, neighbors and family members without using 911 or involving police, making it an ideal app for activists, neighborhood watchers and others willing to participate in helping their communities stay safe without calling police.

The company also said that they are sponsoring the official video feeds from several independent journalist outfits like The Activist Post and Cop Block.  Live video streams from journalists will be made available around the clock via the Cell 411 RNC cell and also social media video feeds like Facebook Live and YouTube.

Note: this article will be updated with additional information as it becomes available during the next several days. To join the RNC cell, download Cell 411, tap on Explore Public Cells and search for “RNC” to join the official cell. You will receive real time alerts and video feeds.

L’application que les flics ne veulent pas que vous ayez

Un utilisateur la décrit comme « un outil révolutionnaire qui va changer notre société ». Un autre dit qu’elle est « badass » et Bary Cooper de NeverGetBusted.com qui est un ancien détective de police décoré en dit que c’est « le nouveau 911 mais en plus sûr ». Les autres utilisateurs la décrivent comme « tout droit sortie d’une fiction cyberpunk » et un autre dit « Je veux vraiment utiliser cette application avant d’appeler un policier ! » Les distinctions se font légion et la police la déteste :

« C’est ce que j’attendais depuis longtemps »

« C’est une très bonne application pour les personnes qui vivent dans des zones où les citoyens et la police ne s’entendent pas »

« C’est comme UBER pour le 911 ! »

« Bientôt, 911 appartiendra au passé… »

Cette nouvelle application mobile a pris d’assaut le monde d’activisme et les polices la détestent. Elle s’appelle Cell411 et c’est une application qui a été créé par des activistes pour des activistes, mais aussi pour n’importe qui qui se trouve en situation d’urgence et qui voudrait appeler un groupe d’amis à qui il fait confiance plutôt que la police.

L’application, qui est disponible sur les plateformes Android et IOS, permet aux utilisateurs d’émettre diverses alertes à des groupes de membre de la famille, du voisinage et d’amis en qui ils ont confiance. La question de faire face aux urgences, sans intervention de la police est venu à l’avant-garde du débat sur la brutalité policière car de nombreux cas ont montré que la police répond aux situations d’urgence avec la brutalité et tirent sur des chiens, tuent des personnes suicidaires et souvent n’aident pas ceux qui demandent de l’aide, mais les blesse et les tuent.

L’application sur smartphone vous autorisera à créer des groupes privés ou publics dans votre zone géographique et de les utiliser comme une méthode pour demander de l’aide en cas d’urgence. Vous pouvez avertir vos amis quand vous avez un pneu à plat, vous faites tirez dessus, avez un problème médical ou lorsque les policiers vous harcèlent. Vous pouvez aussi enregistrer des vidéos en direct pour vos amis et éviter la possibilité que la vidéo soit détectée par la police ou que l’évidence ne soit détruite par un individu malveillant.

Une fois que vous avez demandé de l’aide, vos amis recevront votre coordonnées GPS et les directions vers votre emplacement exacte ; vous serez avertis d’un ETA et où sont vos amis.

Il y a même un « mode patrouille » disponible qui peut même vous permettre d’envoyer ce que l’on appelle des « alertes globales » ce qui signifie que n’importe qui utilisant l’application dans votre zone recevra des notifications et sera capable de venir et de vous aider, et même se sentir comme un bon samaritain.

La meilleure chose à propos de cette application c’est qu’elle est complètement gratuite, et que l’option de permettre aux utilisateurs de créer des « groupes publics » que tout le monde peut rejoindre est très puissante et offre aux communautés l’option de faire elle aussi la police. Voici quelques exemples des fantastiques possibilités que cette application offre :

Par exemple, un groupe de surveillance de quartier de voisins pourrait créer un groupe et utiliser l’application pour avertir tous les autres en cas d’urgences.

• Les personnes âgées peuvent utiliser l’application pour avertir tous les membres de famille s’ils ont un besoin particulier.
• Les activistes qui observent l’activité de la police ou les abus de la police peuvent avertir tous les activistes dans une zone et streamer la vidéo à tous leurs amis.
• Les pompiers volontiers peuvent encourager leurs communautés à utiliser l’application comme une option « d’expédition » gratuite.
• Les écoliers peuvent envoyer des alertes s’ils sont harcelés ou victimes d’abus à l’école.
• Les membres de la famille peuvent être alertés quand les véhicules tombent en panne et ont besoin d’une urgence rapide.

Il y a d’innombrables autres possibilités pour cette application, et les créateurs visent clairement l’application des utilisateurs qui désirent être autonomes et ne pas dépendre des services gouvernementaux et des employés du gouvernement pour répondre aux urgences.

Vous pouvez télécharger Cell 411 sur http://getcell411.com.

La courte vidéo ci-dessous explique les caractéristiques basiques de l’application.

By: Deric Lostutter

The Philippines election is at hand and corruption is taking over.

The Philippines has a long history of political corruption.

Gloria Arroyo, a former Philippines president, even openly admitted to rigging the voting machines to win, using a method called “dag-dag bawas“, and nothing was done about it.

After ousting Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquinos of the Liberal Party was placed in office in the late 1980’s and eventually led a bloody legacy of killing 13 farmers and protesters in the Mendiola Massacre.

Mar Roxas of the Liberal Party is campaigning for presidency and using bribes, extortion, and censorship to do it.

“-They were distributing money behind the stage, away from the cameras (as one guy admitted, he got a t-shirt and 50 pesos, on top of the packed meal, 2 ballers, slippers, fan, and picture of Mar that were given to the attendees)”

Rodrigo Duterte is the representitive of PDP-Laban, or, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, which means basically Demecratic Filipino party, Strength of the Nation, and is the new hope of the Filipino people against the Liberal Party who has been in positions of power including the presidency since the 1980’s after the fall of dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.

Duterte has been a mayor of the city of Davo for almost 22 years and the crime rate under his mayorship has significantly dropped as he managed to weed out the corruption in the city.

In Camiguin city, they have banned any political posters that are not pro Mar Roxas’, and the local government cut power to a building that housed an opposing rally.

Citizens of the Philipines reached out to TruthVoice in a pleading to get international coverage about the oppression and censorship that is occuring in their country, impoverishing thousands.

One citizen, Angel, tells TruthVoice that Mar Roxas comissioned rented jeeps and trucks, to “round people up from the fringes of the city (Rogongon, Digkilaan, etc.)” forcing them to attend a pro Roxas rally or they would take down their name and threaten to take away their 4ps (government assistance).

Unbeknownst to most of the impoverished citizens, Roxas does not have the power to take away their government assistance.

Angel went on to state that protesters received bribes, and clothing if they vote for Roxas.

Roxas’ party erroneously tweeted that 10,000 people, (who were extorted to attend), attended his rally at Illigan City Plaza, which can only hold a maximum of 1000 people, elbow to elbow.

Angel went on to state that “a lot of people went because they were (falsely) told Kathniel (a famous T.V. couple) would be there.”

When asking Angel what she wanted to say to the rest of the world, she replied:

“All I wants is an honest to god chance at an honest election for once, and I, like a lot of the Filipino people believe this may be our only shot at real change.”

Another resident alien, who is actually still a United States citizen spoke to TruthVoice about the police corruption in the area.

-Right now in the Philippines, it is not uncommon for a police officer to stop you for nothing and tell you if you do not pay them they will find something to fine you for, for a lot more money. I have had this happen to me personally, and who do you turn to? The police? They are the ones doing it, lol. “

When asking the U.S. citizen what he would want to tell the world, he replied:

“Most people won’t care because “Oh, who cares it’s just some third world country” but it is more than that, it is a third world country trying to make themselves better, but being held down by the neck, by people who are profiting by it being beaten down.

I would ask that the world watches, and gets as angry about it as I am, then maybe something can be done when people are oppressed like this action can be taken.”

A shopkeeper in the same area confirmed that merchandise was ordered for her store, and the Philippines Customs agents seized her shipment, trying to extort her for 3 times what the shipment was worth to obtain it, or they would keep it. Luckily for the shopkeeper, she knew someone in Customs, and the package was cleared.

“-In the Philippines it is all about who you know.”

HARTFORD–The drone discussion has been buzzing around the state Capitol for hearings this week.

Monday, a Connecticut bill to ban the weaponization of drones was discussed, and on Tuesday, a bill to control the use of drones in many ways, including by law enforcement agencies, was debated.

Lawmakers listened to testimony concerning restrictions on drones with cameras versus expectations of privacy. The bill would also require police to get a warrant to use drones in many cases.

Police made the argument that armed drones in law enforcement could be an effective weapon for public safety.

“We’ve had a report that somebody’s going to fly a drone into an airplane, into an engine, or it’s a weaponized drone,” Farmington Police Chief Paul Melanson said.  “We’re concerned and we don’t have those answers yet.”

The ACLU of Connecticut testified against allowing police to arm drones, saying it could open the door even more to excessive use of force.

“We are concerned that there could be misuse, particularly on vulnerable communities,” David McGuire of the ACLU said at the hearing.

Let us know what you think about the issue on Facebook: