Drones will be used to help police officers responding to emergencies in a trial in London.
Remotely-launched drones will send back information from the scene to assist officers both on the ground and in a control room, the Metropolitan Police has said.
Piloted by a trained operator and kept in special boxes on the roofs of selected police buildings, the drones will be launched from the force’s control room, as part of a response to a 999 call, arriving on the scene within two minutes and start streaming back footage.
A police officer pilots a drone during a demonstration. Pic: PA
They are expected to help in many types of incidents, including searching for missing people, tracing suspects and arriving quickly to capture evidence at a scene, providing similar operational benefits as helicopters while being quicker, quieter, cheaper and better for the environment, the Met said.
The pilot programme, known as Drone as First Responder (DFR), run by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC)’s drones programme, will start in Islington in north London, and expand to cover the West End and Hyde Park areas of the city by the end of the year.
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, the national lead for drones, called the technology a “vital new tool to tackle crime”.
He said: “Aerial support to policing has always added huge value, because it gives us the ability to make informed decisions about deployment and look for people – that is a lot harder to do on the ground.
“By getting that immediate response with a drone, we’re going to have more precise information, we’re capturing best evidence at the very earliest opportunity, but most importantly, where scenes are chaotic or witnesses are confused, it allows us to inform our own decisions about how many officers, which assets we should deploy, and critically, if suspects or offenders are making away from the scene, we can quickly identify them and bring them into custody without the need for large, expansive area searches.”
Pic: PA
Unlike most drones, which are piloted by an individual who always has to be able to see that drone and watch it flying, these ones “will fly autonomously by itself to a scene”.
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A remote pilot can then take control of that drone and use it for its policing purpose, then the drone will autonomously fly back to its base, he added.
He said: “So it provides more flexibility, more agility in our response, and ensures that it’s far more rapid than you would ordinarily get from a line of sight drone.”
Superintendent Taryn Evans, who leads the NPCC Drones Programme and the pilot for the Met, said during trials at other forces, “the technology has proven a gamechanger in many incidents”.
Norfolk Constabulary, Cleveland Police, West Midlands Police, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary and Thames Valley Police Joint Operations Unit are also in the trial, the Met said.
