I really don't see the objection to this, at least from a civil liberties standpoint. What's the difference between an unmanned drone doing this and a guy in a light plane or helicopter doing the same thing, which is already common practice in many areas? The road is about as public a place as you can get, your car is even marked with your identifying tag, and everyone is used to unmarked cars, speed traps, hidden cameras, radar and a host of other devices and tricks to foil speeders.

But there ARE big problems with it. I see it as counterproductive to good police work. Every marked prowler on the road is a deterrent to many potential crimes and traffic violations and is a flexible mobile resource which can quickly be deployed to an alternative mission, a hidden device only gets the guy it catches and has little application anywhere else. Police departments love to spend big money on high tech devices and special units and squads, these are usually solutions looking for problems and serve primarily to build up the prestige and careers of the bureaucrats who manage them and administer their budgets. What they should be spending their money on is putting as many officers on the beat as possible, not high tech toys that put cops out of work and siphon police salaries into automated boondoggles.

This isn't a civil liberties issue, its just another way to outsource police work to technocrats. It sounds terrifically expensive and will be handicapped by weather, night use, safety issues, air traffic restrictions and mechanical problems which will keep the damn thing grounded most of the time anyway.

The police union will never let this bird fly.