Send the Green Police! Big Green Brother has spotted enviro-criminals.
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British Spy Planes Identify Home Energy AbusersPosted on: Thursday, 26 March 2009, 06:55 CDT
Britain’s monitoring of public citizens has reached an all new height, as local authorities turn to spy planes to search out homeowners who are using too much energy.
Thermal imaging cameras are used to create color-coded maps by which council officers can identify offenders. The officers then conduct follow up visits to the homes to educate occupants about environmental damage and ways to reduce their energy consumption.
The Broadland District Council in Norfolk has already spent $44,000 (£30,000) hiring a plane with an onboard thermal imaging camera, according to a report in Britain’s Daily Mail Online. Broadland, which includes the towns of Aylsham, Reepham and Acle, hired the plane for five days in January from a Leicestershire-based firm.
According to the conservative-led Council, the approach has been so successful that other local authorities are now planning to follow suit.
However, the tactic is not without its critics, who warn that the crackdown is yet another example of local authorities expanding their roles to snoop into every aspect of people's lives.
In Broadland, the aircraft captured images of businesses and homes, with those losing the most heat shown in red and better-insulated buildings appearing in blue.
Andy Jarvis, the Council's environmental services chief, said the original plan targeted only businesses, but they later realized it could be expanded to include residential properties as well.
"The project we put together was for a plane to go up on various nights flying strips of the district and taking pictures," he told the Daily Mail.
"Through those images, a thermal image photograph can be created in which you can pick out individual properties which are losing a lot of heat."
"We do a lot on domestic energy conservation already and realized it would be useful to see if any of the homes which were particularly hot were properties where people had not insulated their lofts."
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