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Being detected by helicopters

bergerbuddy

Canna Coco grower
Veteran
FLIR cannot see through walls! Lots of guys are so worried here about cops being able to see your lights, but they cannot! They can only see the outside of your house and what temperature the outside is. If you have a dryer, or air cooled lights venting outside than thats all they can see. In the US cops must have a warrant to use it on your house, so if you get FLIR'ed you're already screwed.


Man are u fucking nuts?????

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IS DOES..... SEE'S THROUGH WALLS

BY SHOWING HEAT SIGNATURES BEHIND THOSE WALLS BRO!!!
 

Cyber9

Member
Nice vid man, puts it into perspective... sure they NEED a warrent, but we all know cops are dirty lazy bastards. This video just proved that.
 

Lazyman

Overkill is under-rated.
Veteran
Man are u fucking nuts?????

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IS DOES..... SEE'S THROUGH WALLS

BY SHOWING HEAT SIGNATURES BEHIND THOSE WALLS BRO!!!

No, again, is shows the temperature of the outside wall. If part of the wall is warm, it will be a different color. If you grow in a tin shed the whole thing will glow a different color. It cannot see me or my heat signature walking behind a wall, regardless of construction materials.

It cannot SEE through walls, and tell grow lights from a heater, or see whats in your pockets. It sees heat and heat differences, there is no penetration of the wall to speak of.

If you took a FLIR of my building you would not be able to see 8 reflectors, ballasts, etc or me inside it. Watch Barry Coopers bust above and you can see the actual FLIR footage of the side of a grow house. The hot air blowing out a vent was WHITE hot on FLIR, but the rest of the house, grow lights included, can not be seen. Are you seeing something I'm not?
 
Don't just look at one video or even 10 different people's advice.

The first step in your local law enforcement (not including DEA or anything federal of course) but their first step is to gain warrant to use FLIR. But again this could differ between state-to-state, county-to-county.

This is usually accomplished by them gaining warrant to check your power usage from your power company, but how hard is this for them to get the warrant?
This is why you can't go on anybody else's advice because every different county, state have different laws.
One city in California could have had so many busts that with little amount of probable cause they can gain warrant for power company, but say a city in Washington state would have to have more probable cause for warrant like say the most common drug evidence, the snitch.

But sure after they get your power bill and can see probable evidence to further pursue your case that can grant them warrant to FLIR your house or apt.

Best advice I can give you is to move to a county that doesn't have a really high priority for drug cultivation busts. If you can't move out of your non-legal state that is.(I just so happen to be one of the lucky states -.-).

And be careful, the last thing you want is to ever EVER get the attention of ANY federal drug enforcement agents. That is their job, the thing they wake up every morning to do. And their access to things like warrants, raids, etc, are nowhere near as strict as most locals....

Again the locals are different in every state, county, town. So maybe do some research where you live and find out information on your local busts. This can give you a better idea since theres no 1-800 information line to get this information i'm not sure how to find out this type of info other then news stories, etc.

Best of wishes, be safe.
 

Pythagllio

Patient Grower
Veteran
They don't get a warrant to check electrical usage, they issue a subpoena. Many think subpoenas are like warrants and issued by judges, which is incorrect.
 
stop the roumers

stop the roumers

i ued to work alongside the police for a year or 2, (was not a cop or nuttin, just alongside them) and gained alot of valuable info on how people are getting busted.

firstly they hardly ever, if at all go out on the prowl for grow houses, the information often comes from neighburs or the road kerten twitchers, after the information had been ratifyed by another source i.e drive by inspection or a second complaint, they may ask a judge to let them spiciffically scrutinise your yard.

if and when this happens they can tune the frequency of the camera to see different intesitys of heat. if they are looking for people on the street the camera will not be able to see ur grow light, due to the settings of the camera not being sensative enough to penertrate a wall. if they want to see through the wall they turn it up and see a room filled with heat with a glowing heart. this will then be enough for a warrent to be issued for detailed search.

only if they have publick info will they get you. dony worry too much bout the copper choppers if ur carefull with ur setup.

a 400w set-up will not warrent much attention, could be anything to them. this is the uk way
 
They don't get a warrant to check electrical usage, they issue a subpoena. Many think subpoenas are like warrants and issued by judges, which is incorrect.


Thank you for the correction!! All subpoena's must be written/signed by the court, whether it's the clerk or judge him/herself. But you are completely correct it isn't a warrant that must be obtained, must easier for them to obtain your utilities with probable evidence for investigation with only a subpoena needed... But that still must lead to probable evidence for a warrant to do any FLIR.
Which just running 400W should hopefully keep you confident and in safe-haven -.-
 

Pythagllio

Patient Grower
Veteran
Who told you that subpoena's have to go through a judge? Filed with the clerk of the court yes, reviewed before being issued, wrong.
 

DIGITALHIPPY

Active member
Veteran
The heat signature that your bulb gives off is what they see. The heat that gets vented out can be dissipated to a point where they would not notice, it can be attributed to a Dryer vent or water heater vent. The point is that if you have a really strong source of heat shining in your house at night then it will cause suspicion.

Many people will say they can't use infrared to detect you, it is against the law. These people are naive fools .Police helicopters have infrared on all the time at night, if you've ever seen cops,America's most wanted or your local high-speed chase on T.V you will notice that if the person(s) try to hide in foliage(tall grass) or down a dark alley they glow.

That same glow is given off by your light as they are flying over your spot. If you think that they are not going to take note of where they saw bright lights shining in houses at night then all of my writing has gone to waste and you will probably be posting- a i got busted thread soon.

In the winter use the Light during the day and in the summer go to your local home improvement store and get thermo insulation. 3m has 4X8 sheets they should be around the dry wall section. They also have a roll of insulation they sell it looks like the heat shields they make to keep your car cool, the kind you put on your dash, only its a long roll.That should be by the water heater section of Lowes or Home Depot.

These tactics are always used and lied about by the Police and DEA.

Good luck


this forum has way too much PARANOIA floating around...(big wafting clouds...)
although they do always have it on, its difficult for them to get a warrent based on IR heat signature... they dont see lightbulbs or heaters, they just see heat, could be caused by...jacuzzi? oven? dryer? etc.
now if your whole roof is glowing, you need to work on your thermals.
anyone growing should have excessive attic fans (i have 3)

paranoia is healthy if kept in check.

ive lived in a few different places under the daily/hourly patrol/flight pattern and never had issues. few years now.

just be careful. vent excessive heat out of the attic, dont just dump heat into the attic plumb ducting out of the attic to keep safe.
 

Verite

My little pony.. my little pony
Veteran
I hate to break it to ya but I havent seen one MJ forum on the net where the security section wasnt overly preoccupied by people trying to avoid flir on helicopters even though theres an abundance of evidence that points to them literally doing this like one in a million busts due to the laws and the costs.
 

Lazyman

Overkill is under-rated.
Veteran
I hate to break it to ya but I havent seen one MJ forum on the net where the security section wasnt overly preoccupied by people trying to avoid flir on helicopters even though theres an abundance of evidence that points to them literally doing this like one in a million busts due to the laws and the costs.

Good point Verite, choppers are EXTREMELY expensive to keep in the air per hour, what with the fuel, pilot salary, maintenance, insurance etc. I don't know about other states, but California is freakin broke and rarely have aircraft out doing much of anything. If there is a long high-speed chase they'll bust out 1 chopper, but then it heads right back to the airport.

A couple countries are talking about having small unmanned blimps permanently in the air for recon and the like, that will be a sad day indeed. I bet London has the first one, followed by New York City.
 

Verite

My little pony.. my little pony
Veteran
Ive actually checked up on it and the really cheap range [ read as old helicopters, old pilots, and old laws ] is about $200-500 per flight hour. The more expensive ones cost $1500-3000 per flight hour. When other methods of catching growers are not only free and yield 100 times the results you are going to have a hard time wasting tax dollars that just arent there anymore.
 

SouthernGuerila

Gotta Smoke 'Em All!
ICMag Donor
Veteran
On another note Dept of Homeland Security uses UAVs.

Doubtful they're using any of their budget to locate cannabis grow ops.
 

DIGITALHIPPY

Active member
Veteran
Good point Verite, choppers are EXTREMELY expensive to keep in the air per hour, what with the fuel, pilot salary, maintenance, insurance etc. I don't know about other states, but California is freakin broke and rarely have aircraft out doing much of anything. If there is a long high-speed chase they'll bust out 1 chopper, but then it heads right back to the airport.

A couple countries are talking about having small unmanned blimps permanently in the air for recon and the like, that will be a sad day indeed. I bet London has the first one, followed by New York City.

my local orange-county, city has 3+ choppers, and has one up 24/7....
how do i know? i see him every 3-4 hours on his rounds. sometimes its the silver with blue stripe, others its the black with blue stripe.

i about shit myself every time i see him line-up with my street flying below 250ft... feels like 75... and flys down with the white lights doing a slow back-n-fourth flashing pattern.

happens all the damn time...
after a year i was thinking the paranoia would go away.
i just keep a good eye on my thermals.

honestly i was more woried about the almost $1K/month power bills....
 
Cops cannot legally fly around with the FLIR on looking for heat sigs. They must have reasonable grounds to believe that a grow is going before they can get a warrant for FLIR overflying and investigating. Remember, cops are not supposed to even investigate people or property unless there is some reasonable grounds to believe a crime is being committed...not a hunch, but evidence.

Copters are not a big worry anymore and only now and then will they find a grow accidentally...always best to be careful but no big deal.
 

stoned40yrs

Ripped since 1965
Veteran
from what I've seen, my state uses FLIR whenever they want to. It don't cost them nothing for chopper time. They ride with the air national guard on so called and billed "training missions" and do their dirty work on the cheap. Then they shuffle paperwork to get it all legal looking. they don't take down single grows unless it's big. they don't take down single small grows on a road if you're the only grower on that road. They have to have 4 or 5 grows on the same road before they come bustin in, all done in one day. wasn't hard to see the change when flir became one of their weapons.
 

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