Thinking about getting a small house in a mountainous area of Virginia to grow a few (1-5) plants inside but everyone that lives in this area says our local police agency does thermal imaging in these areas so it's a terrible idea. Could anyone give me more information on the process of thermal imaging? I have been doing my research on it but no one has anything specifically catering to us MMJ growers. The local sheriff (hate em) does have 2 helicopters both equipped with the cameras for imaging and they do flyovers but how exactly would I be able to mask the heat signature? Does it target spots where I'd have a light? Would I even need to worry with such a small amount of plants? Anyone from Virginia would be able to stand by me that the prices here are outrageous so I really gotta get to growing my own products sometime soon. I recently completed my first outdoor grow along with my corn field which we harvested 2 weeks ago, turned out excellent.
the use of FLIR by small town leo's in expensive to operate helicopters to bust mom-n-pop growing a couple of pot plants, is widely exaggerated by stoner mythology. for those that worry, you have tools you can buy we didn't have available in the old days (we had to plan ahead and hope we got it right); they sell FLIR devices you can use on your Android phoneon Amazon...for about $250...get one and use it to show your heat leaks and block them off using thermal barrier insulation.
Let's just say my county has excessive drug enforcement funding. Our sheriff is an ex DEA hard ass and thinks that weed is the biggest problem while turning blindly to the uprising meth and heroin in the more rural regions of the county. Good tips, never knew you could thermal image with just a phone!
Cannot see just a few plants throwing off a signature that would be indicative of a pot grow...further, the electric bill and water bill do not seem like they will have increased that much. Hell, my electric bill is less with a room occupied by a few plants than it was with another person living in my house. While I only have two growing at the moment and I use T5's, the room temps were not what one would have viewed as high and in the absence of any other indicators, offer nothing that would serve as probable cause even when I was on a 24-0 cycle.
I should add that the catch-22 to the FLIR devices becoming more common is that by taking them out of the hands of JUST law enforcement and placing them in the hands of anyone with a few hundred dollars, it means that Kyllo becomes ripe for revisiting. That was the Supreme Court case that was a 5-4 decision outlining an expectation of privacy and holding that, without a warrant, thermal imaging was intrusive. <blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >Where, as here, the Government uses a device that is not in general public use, to explore details of the home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a "search" and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant. Since we hold the Thermovision imaging to have been an unlawful search, it will remain for the District Court to determine whether, without the evidence it provided, the search warrant issued in this case was supported by probable cause-and if not, whether there is any other basis for supporting admission of the evidence that the search pursuant to the warrant produced.</blockquote> But until there is a case that leads to Kyllo being set aside, the key remains to stay smart about the grow operation and don't give cues that, by themselves and aside from thermal imaging, would allow sufficient PC for a warrant issue and you should be ok (in the United States...not opining about other Countries).
If you are really worried about it set up your grow room and run some tomatoes, lettuce, or other legal plants for about six months to a year. Put some cameras up as well. If they do come knocking on your door with a warrant then sue them. If they don't, your good to go.
Barry coopers never get busted volume 1 and 2 your welcome Happy growing UsDEA Sent from my SCH-I545 using Grasscity Forum mobile app