Crime Fighting Blimp?

The Predator drone it ain't, but police in Ogden, Utah are considering the use of an unmanned crime fighting blimp. The 52-foot dirigible would have night vision capabilities and act as "an extra patrolman in the sky" according to local authorities.

Hey, it might actually work. You could equip such a craft with bright spotlights, a loudspeaker...maybe even a device that would deploy tear gas (?).

The blimp would of course be almost silent. And it would be fairly easy to operate via remote control, as opposed to a conventional unmanned airplane. The cameras could keep bad guys in view until the cops could get to the scene of the crime in patrol cars.

Hmmmm....what do you think? I wonder what the maintenance costs would be on a remote control blimp.

Right now there are no plans to build the thing, but they are talking about it. I don't think we could use one of those effectively here in the Abilene area. There's way too much wind! (via cbsnews.com)