Arizona poised for boom in drone businesses
Mary Shinn/Cronkite News Service
WASHINGTON — After the high-profile shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010, Scott Rollefstad felt he had to do something to help keep other agents safe.
So the Tucson resident headed to his garage and, after several months of tinkering, emerged with a backpack-sized surveillance drone. While Border Patrol already has military-scale drones on the border, Rollefstad said his 6-by-18-inch prototype can launch in minutes and be used for close-in surveillance, giving agents another set of eyes in the sky.
“There’s just no need for this type of blind, bumbling around in the bush, in our desert,” he said of agents on the ground.
Rollefstad hopes to someday sell his drone to police agencies and others to help save lives. But he also knows that not everyone sees drones the way he does.
“The minute someone hears ‘drones,’ they think of the Afghan killing machines,” he said.
That perception of drones as flying spy cameras and killing machines has raised concerns of privacy advocates, led to a flood of state and federal legislation and started the process of regulation by the Federal Aviation Administration.
http://ktar.com/22/1632721/Arizona-poised-for-boom-in-drone-businesses
