Net Cast Over Drug Growers

[Dragonfan]

www.theage.com.au

 

Cameron Houston

28 December 2008

 

Victorian Police have turned to satellite technology to hunt green-fingered crooks who grow marijuana in suburban backyards, on farms or on Crown land. With most outdoor crops maturing over the next four months, police are increasingly relying on Google Earth to identify cannabis crops, which can be worth up to $2500 a plant.

 

A Victoria Police spokeswoman has confirmed that Google Earth is a tool in the battle against outdoor growers and has helped with several recent investigations. A senior member of Victoria's drug tasking unit told The Sunday Age the Big Brother technology would be used more when satellite images were updated more frequently.

 

"The detail is extremely good and allows us to pick up small plots of cannabis virtually anywhere," the source said. "The clarity is improving all the time, and I think it's something we'll probably use more down the track." Google Earth was used, after a tip-off, to confirm the cultivation of about 20 mature cannabis plants in the backyard of a north suburban home in March.

 

"We definitely have more sophisticated tools, so we often use Google Earth to follow up on 'intel' provided to us by the community. While technology has come a long way, alert neighbours are still probably our greatest resource," the source said.

 

Police laid more than 1000 charges in 2006-07 for cannabis cultivation. The technology also enabled officers to monitor national parks and private farms, and detect changes in the landscape where native vegetation had been cleared for the illegal crops.

 

But the use of Google Earth as a law enforcement tool has raised privacy concerns among civil libertarians. Liberty Victoria president Michael Pearce, SC, concedes it is difficult to prevent new applications of satellite mapping but has called for tighter regulation. "We think the most effective way of responding to these technologies is not to stop them, because we can't, but to ensure that they develop in a proper legal framework," Mr Pearce said.

 

He called for the Federal Government to respond to a recent recommendation by the Australian Law Reform Commission for a legislated right to privacy. It was revealed in September that local councils were also using Google Earth and Google Street View to ensure ratepayers complied with by-laws and planning regulations.

 

City of Yarra Council used satellite mapping to identify illegal building activity in the municipality, which led to 175 notices and 35 prosecutions last financial year. Yarra Mayor Judy Morton defended the practice, saying it had not been used to snoop on ratepayers. "The program is freely available to any member of the public to use, and there is no reason why council should not use this technology also," she said. "It is by no means the only tool used in these circumstances and is used more as a means of confirming initial concern …"

[mistyville]

How bloody sad. Fuckin' BIG BROTHER. It looks as though I'm gone....Mistyville

[Rocker]

The Google Earth I use is updated about every 6-8 years. That's if they update it all. The pictures I look at are at least 5 years out of date.

Someone is telling lies here. Guess who.

[shroomyshroom]

The Google Earth I use is updated about every 6-8 years. That's if they update it all. The pictures I look at are at least 5 years out of date.

Someone is telling lies here. Guess who.

 

 

are you serious... i used google earth and google street view and i can tell you the pics were no older than a few months

[rickyroo]

Hey Guys,

 

According to Google earth its updated every 1-3 years.

The longer you grow outside the higher chance you have of a picture being taken :|

 

It's going to be a constant battle with technology to keep our plants growing,

It just mean's outdoor growers are going to have to hide there crops better. Or invest in some hydroponics

 

Rick

[Rocker]

My apologies; you guys are right!

 

I have used google earth to check out our place many times and got tired of it because the photo was years out of date.

However I just checked again and OMG there is an update with a higher resolution.

I can see the hedges I must have just trimmed and the new concrete driveways and all the shrubs.

 

This is going to be a serious problem. We are under siege and it's never going to end by the looks of things.

[shroomyshroom]

My apologies; you guys are right!

 

I have used google earth to check out our place many times and got tired of it because the photo was years out of date.

However I just checked again and OMG there is an update with a higher resolution.

I can see the hedges I must have just trimmed and the new concrete driveways and all the shrubs.

 

This is going to be a serious problem. We are under siege and it's never going to end by the looks of things.

 

 

thier is always a way to do something think out side the box and you will be fine.... most importantly dont tell anyone... not even your shadow.... most ppl are rats and eill rat you out the second you to start have words with each other...

 

a famous quote you might not know.. but which i have learnt the hard way to many times...

 

"A person will only be as faithful as there options" dont ever forget that...

[Nooby]

I dunno, I reckon they'd be hard pressed to spot a plant or three sitting in amongst a bunch of other plants? The bigger growers might have more to worry about, but how sad has Australia become when you get dobbed in by your neighbours? Fair enough, if you're a cnut but if you do your best to get on with your neighbours and they'd still prefer running to the government rather than talking about it with you first then ANZAC is dead and the uniqueness that Australia and it's people once had is also dead, assimilated into the great dumbed down U.S./Satanic worldview where everyone is reduced to their spending and tax paying power and most laws only exist for purposes of show.

[Indycar]

Obviously Cameron Houston likes to think everyone is a dickhead, and doesn't mind insulting our intelligence by writing such rubbish. There's too many untruths, that i don't know where to start. So i'm not going to bother..

 

Please avoid trying to make society dumber by posting such crap in future.

 

[Innocent criminal]

Its the big guys that will have the most trouble alright, its easy as piss to make a plant nearly invisible from above, think camo netting or growing tied out amongst evergreen shrubs, just use ya noggin.

If the russians could hide nuclear missile silo's from hi res spy planes, then a hiding a couple of plants from google earth shouldn't be too hard.

Once again it comes back to dog neighbors and rat "friends" letting em know where to look

 

THC