One Maryland officer told a local news station that they have searched for other manufacturers of drones and none live up to the quality of DJI.

Maryland police are using drones from a Chinese company that were banned in four states::One Maryland officer told a local news station that they have searched for other manufacturers of drones and none live up to the quality of DJI.

  • rm_dash_r_star@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    It’s like when USA police agencies only bought Harley Davidson motorcycles because it was politically correct to source equipment from domestic sources. Once they realized what over-priced and poor performing machines they are, they gave up on the idea and went to foreign sources.

    Personally I think the taxes we pay to support government organizations should go toward domestically sourced equipment. They should be supporting the local economy, but it’s so one sided now they don’t really have a choice. However with some industries it can be a slippery slope. There was a recent USA ban on telecom equipment from Huawei related to this.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      11 months ago

      I don’t think this is an economic decision. Chinese companies have been caught putting malware and spyware into their hardware. Not all of them of course, but a couple. Lenovo did it, and they’re probably the most well known.

      For consumer goods, that’s probably fine. No one cares if China spies on grandma. But for law enforcement, we really don’t want to be using spy bots.