something i seen on tv...

[smokin']

i seen something on tv not long ago, regarding the police about marijuana sting opperations........something to this effect....they were in a helicopter with some type of thermal devices trying to find people who grow and found a hellacious amount of people growing by their thermal thingies, that picked up on large amounts of heat? anyone seen anything like this ? and what are you thoughts......

 

[4u2sm0ke]

yes this how they bust Most growers..Take care and be safe

 

[Cali*Style]

This is very true. But a funny as hell side note is: I was raided way back about 7 years ago, because a helicopter fly over showed excessive heat signatures... I bet they felt real stupid when they saw all my reptile cages. I laughed so hard over that. And thankfully, I didn't even have any pipes at that time. Truly priceless.

 

[Dr. Manny Bowles]

LMAO, to have that on an episode of COPS would be the ultimate. Not that they would ever show that....

 

[The Effen Gee]

Understand what your up against : hxxp://www.flir.com/cvs/americas/en/lawenforcement/

 

[midibullets]

FLIR is no big deal, FLIR cant see through rooftops, etc. It can only see "direct heat" FLIR might see a "heat signature" coming from your home if you are running a bunch of 1000 watt lights in a thin walled home, but its unlikely. You would get the same heat profile running a heater in your home. Notice in the video links above, you cant see "human heat" behind walls or other "solid objects". Just like the images from the Iraq war & afghanistan (which is much better equipment) once someone runs indoors, they are no longer seen. FLIR would see your 400 watt HPS if it was outside in your back yard, bulb facing up. Remember, it is illegal in the USA for law enforcement to use any device that can look through walls to find heat, or find anything for that matter, and that's IF they even had that level of equipment, which you will only find in cities like Los Angeles & New York City. that is purely illegal UNLESS they have a warrant to do so.

 

[PencilHead]

Yet another reason to run your lites in the heat of the day.

 

[kaotik]

heard about them for years.. was a little concerned at first, but a decade later and i still haven't seen any or heard of anyone busted by them, i'm leaning more towards myth. atleast around here.

maybe uncle sam uses them though, you never know.. they do like to waste money on the 'war on drugs' and i don't imagine it's cheap basically flying around, pointing a camera out, looking for a needle in a heystack. (thats why if they do use them, i think they'd have to have some suspicion first, not just fly around the city with a camera, hoping.)

 

[Dr. Manny Bowles]

maybe uncle sam uses them though, you never know.. they do like to waste money on the 'war on drugs' and i don't imagine it's cheap basically flying around, pointing a camera out, looking for a needle in a heystack. (thats why if they do use them, i think they'd have to have some suspicion first, not just fly around the city with a camera, hoping.)

I saw some footage on a show a year or two back that showed cops using one of those to spot a grow. The heat signature they were all excited about finding didn't look much different than what the other houses were putting off, just slightly more light/heat coming from a window. They already suspected the house to be a growhouse before they flew over it, and used the infrared to seal the deal for a warrant.
I also seriously doubt they fly around scanning the city for hotspots, but who knows.

 

[Old_SSSC_Guy]

They definately use heat sigs like excessive attic heat loss or radiating basement windows. But that alone is not enough for a search warrant. They will add stuff like "windows covered when their neighbors are not" and they will search your trash, pull your use records from the power company and compare it to neighborhood averages, stuff like that. About 10 years ago I saw the warrant used to attack a friend's grow, and in it they also included "flowers and potted plants are seen in the suspect's yard indicating gardening experience". Sheesh...

I've seen heat sig photos taken over corn fields, its real easy to see the heat trails of the growers walking thru to check their grow. Stands out like a sore thumb for many hours after on the cold, undisturbed soil in corn rows. Also seen heat sig pics of houses that were raided and you could clearly see the roof of the houses blazing heat when the neighbors roofs did not.

But most of the helio and plane flyovers were stopped when we went to war. They used National Guard pilots for the flyovers (gave the guys time at in the cockpit that they needed). Those guys and their gear are now needed for more honest things than snooping for pot growers; like trying to save boys from dying in the desert.

Heat sigs are real but are only part of the equation.

 

[WeedHopper]

Loose Lips is always the culprit.FLIR comes after the loose lips.

 

[Cali*Style]

When I was raided, they claimed that I was using "excessive" electricity and my house showed "abnormal" temperatures. All I had at the time was a whole string of reptiles, I hadn't started growing indoors yet. I obtained a lawyer and prepared to go to court, but all charges were dropped. Apparently, the ceramic heaters for the reptile cages show up the same as grow lights? After all this, I learned about them using infrared imagining to look for heat signatures. This was about 7 years ago though, I have no idea what policies or regulations they have now governing its use. Or how the technology has changed since then.