Helicopter FLIR
Air
This page is public-interest research. An argument grade is not a court finding. A watchdog page describes the device. It is not proof a Nevada agency bought it or turned a feature on. A product description is not a Nevada practice. Agencies are not merged: the City of Las Vegas Department of Public Safety, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Clark County School District, the City of Reno, and the Nevada Department of Public Safety stay separate. A hotlist hit is not a confirmed crime. Legal review of this page is unverified.
What it does
A police helicopter can carry a camera and a forward-looking infrared sensor. FLIR makes a heat picture. The heat picture is the thermal card’s subject when it is aimed at a home. This card is the helicopter as the platform. The constitutional rule for thermal imaging of a home is not restated here.
Privacy watchdog concerns
No watchdog page is attached.
Constitutional issues
Unresolved question
Fourth Amendment, Nevada Constitution art. 1, § 18
Warrant practice not established for a Nevada agency
Helicopter FLIR: Ciraolo and Florida v. Riley are counterauthority for ordinary aerial observation. They do not hold that every flight is lawful. Kyllo’s thermal holding is on the thermal card and is not copied as a helicopter holding. No Nevada aviation unit’s sensor list is in this build.
- California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207 (1986). Counterauthority. United States Supreme Court. Naked-eye observation from public airspace was not a search on Ciraolo’s facts.
- Florida v. Riley, 488 U.S. 445 (1989). Counterauthority. United States Supreme Court. Helicopter observation did not violate the Fourth Amendment on the facts presented.
- Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27 (2001). Does not decide this technology. United States Supreme Court. Kyllo is the thermal-imaging holding and is stated on the thermal card. It is not re-decided here as a helicopter case.
Statutes attached to read, not findings.
- NRS Chapter 239. Nevada public-records law is the route to ask for contracts, policies, and logs. Citing it is not a finding that a surveillance practice is unlawful.
- Nevada Constitution art. 1, § 18. State search-and-seizure provision. This page does not quote the section. No section anchor was verified. It is listed only where a search question is actually implicated.
- 42 U.S.C. § 1983. A civil remedy for a deprivation of federal rights under color of state law. It is not a warrant statute, and it does not itself make a surveillance practice unlawful.
Nevada use
Not documented on this page.
No Nevada police helicopter program is documented in the sources used for this page.
See also: FLIR and other thermal imaging; Drones
Next record
Helicopter FLIR: Request the aviation-unit sensor list. Do not treat a helicopter as a drone program.
All devices. A document workflow for this page is not built. The arrest correction form is not a surveillance-document inbox. Corrections and source documents for this page follow the corrections policy. Corrections policy.