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4 creative ways police are trying to reign in rogue drones

Space for air travel is only getting more crowded as drones become more popular.

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Consider this: nearly 370,000 consumer drones have been registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as of Tuesday. 

To keep track of the drone influx, the FAA has cracked down on where they can and can't fly. And the U.S. isn't the only country looking to regulate flight.

Aerial drone photo (Luke Bell)
Skypixel

An interesting quirk born out of this dilemma has been the creative strategies law enforcement has turned to in order to take down drones flying where they shouldn't be.

Tokyo's police department is using anti-drone squads

Tokyo began developing the anti-drone squad as a result of new regulations forbidding people from flying drones over certain crowded residential areas.

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If a drone is spotted where it shouldn't be, the police will first attempt to contact the operator and ask them to land it. If that method falls through, the anti-drone squad will capture it with a giant net.

The nets will measure six to 10 feet long.

This drone can shoot a net out of a canon to capture other flying robots

Mohammad Rastgaar-Aagah, a Michigan Tech associate professor, created this system that allows a drone to capture other ones from a distance. He told the Detroit News he envisions law enforcement using the system.

The 'Falcon Shield' can help the police seize control

An Italian aerospace company, Finmeccanica, is creating what they call a "Falcon Shield" to take drones out of the sky without physically grabbing them.

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Fortune reported that the system is operated by two people and uses sensors to detect objects in a certain airspace. If a drone is flying where it shouldn't be, the Falcon Shield will use sensors, radar, and cameras to pick-up the drone's electronic signals and intercept them. 

The ability to take over control of the drone would allow the operators to safely land it.

Dutch Police are using eagles and hawks to snatch rogue drones

This may be the most bizarre and creative strategy we've seen to-date. 

The Dutch police force are training the birds to capture drones out of the sky the same way they would pick up prey with their talons. But this method hasn't been realized yet as the birds are still undergoing training.

Drone FAA
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