Here's a strange one.

A police helecopter in the UK with a mounted camera came across a house glowing 'white hot'. Assuming the reading was comming from the sort of fluorescent bulbs used to culture cannabis they mounted a drugs raid, only to find it belonged to one of their own community support officers.

It turns out she wasnt a drugs baron, she just has very poor insulation.
 

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Stephen Goodfellow

Level 2 Certified Thermographer
Product Development Enginer - Specalist Materials

This is one of the reasons that such "searches" are no longer legal, at least here in the US. Although I am not a legal expert, from what I know infrared must be part of a chain of evidence and not the only part. Also, given that grow labs are so incredibly profitable, it is clear "the bad guys" also have their own IR cameras now so they can run surveillance on the law enforcement folks.

 

Another variation on this "hot attic" are the programs to do aerial energy "audits." Clearly a home that appears hot compared to others MAY be using more energy due to poor insulation, but it also could be due to any number of other factors such as (1) higher room temperatures, (2) poor attic ventilation, (3) excessive air leakage into the attic, (4) solar absorption, (5) reflection, say a metal roof reflecting a cloud, or (6) the attic hatch is open because someone has been insulating the attic! These kinds of audits were very popular during the "energy crisis" of the 1970s. Unfortunately they are again being conducted in many cities often with the same poor methodologies.

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Thermally Yours,

John
ASNT NDT Level III #48166
The Snell Group
www.thesnellgroup.com
www.thermalsolutions.org
800-636-9820

To the best of my knowlege it was this case from the early 90's where the US judiciary established that IR didn't constitute enougth probable cause for a warrent. I belive they still have use in identifying sites for other forms of surveillance, but I don't think its ever been tested in the UK courts.

Although aerial energy audits are fraught with problems I belive they can still be a useful tool for raising public awareness of insulation and other energy issues such as this very simplified survey posted a while back (as long as the contractors are honest to the limitations of the survey anyway).
 

 

 

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Stephen Goodfellow

Level 2 Certified Thermographer
Product Development Enginer - Specalist Materials

Anything news on the home front when it comes to IR and polygraphing?

Not to my knowlege, but I'm starting to wonder if 'grow lab' should be listed in the 'alternative camera applications'...

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Stephen Goodfellow

Level 2 Certified Thermographer
Product Development Enginer - Specalist Materials

The grow-lamp story has popped up again, this time with an interesting twist.

 An internet reality show has attempted to prove corrupt use of search warrants by US Poilce by using a couple of grow-lamps in an old house to grow christmas trees. The trap worked; Vice Cops break in to find an empty house with a few christmas trees and a load of remote controlled cameras.

 Its kicked off a lot of the usual fuss about police corruption, but curiously enough a lot of sources seem to be reporting it as the use of 'illegal FLIR cameras', something I'm sure the FLIR PR department will be thrilled to read.

 A lot of people seem to interpert the 'Kyllo v. United States' case as meaning that the act of taking an IR image of someones house is completely illegal, as it constitutes an illegal search under the 4th amendment.

 Does this mean its technically illegal for comercial thermographers to image homes without permission, or is it only illegal for law enforcement officalls?

How then can traffic helicopters get away with chasing cars through the suburbs without casuing dosens of 4th amendment violations?

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Stephen Goodfellow

Level 2 Certified Thermographer
Product Development Enginer - Specalist Materials