Handbook of Surveillance Technologies (3rd Ed) - The Real Faces of ...

Handbook of Surveillance Technologies
Aerial surveillance technologies are especially useful for astronomical study, archaeological
excavations, and ecosystems monitoring (weather, pollution, climate change).
3.b. Government Applications
Surveillance technologies are widely used by governments and corporations for national
defense, local law enforcement, disaster assessment and relief, search and rescue, community
planning, resource exploration, wildlife monitoring, property tax assessment, border patrol,
camouflage detection, treaty negotiation and verification.
Military and Search-and-Rescue Specialists monitor natural disasters and war zones to
locate lost individuals. Left: Sgt. Lalit Mathias helps tourists into a Blackhawk helicopter
after they were rescued near an avalanche in the Austrian Alps. Right: After severe
flooding in Honduras following Hurricane Mitch, U.S. Army personnel from the 228th
Aviation Regiment found and airlifted a child who was trapped on top of a house. [U.S.
Army news photos by Troy Darr and Terrence Hayes, released.]
Rescue operations during natural disasters are often complicated by sustained bad weather
and other sources of poor visibility (e.g., smoke). Finding victims who have been stranded on
rooftops, in trees, in vehicles, and under debris, can be a significant challenge and is sometimes
impossible without technology such as listening devices or thermal detectors to determine their
whereabouts. Rescue operations after the devastating Haiti earthquake sometimes involved
locating unconscious people deep inside the rubble of collapsed buildings. Both technology
and sniffer dogs were able to locate some of the victims.
Armed Forces Personnel Regularly Receive Intelligence Briefings. Left: Intelligence
briefing during peacekeeping and humanitarian operations training. Austrian and
Canadian participants are shown in this Partnership for Peace exercise in North Carolina,
which operates according to NATO IFOR standards. Right: A U.S. Marine, Capt.
Nevshemal, gives an intelligence brief to Hungarian and Central Asian platoons at
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. [U.S. DoD 1996 Released Photos by LCpl. R. L. Kugler,
Jr. and LCpl. C. E. Rolfes, released.]
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