You may have read that North Little Rock is trying to become only the third city in the United States to be authorized by the FAA as a test site for an unmanned helicopter drone that would patrol the skies from the air via remote control. North Little Rock is shooting for a spring debut of these drones carrying high-powered cameras should FAA approval come in the next few months.
As I read that one of the proposed uses would be to patrol crowds at Riverfest (there's one more reason to stay on the Little Rock side), I wondered if buzzing over Dickey-Stephens Park on an otherwise uneventful night for the NLR police department might be a logical extension of their crowd-control efforts.
On the one hand, an extra patrol for parking areas around Dickey-Stephens might be a good crime deterrent. But on the other hand, who wants to be watched by the police while they are sitting in the stands trying to enjoy a game? I have no doubt that at some point a bored police officer will Harry Caray the stands looking for babes, and didn't the stadium get buzzed enough by real helicopters last season?
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