Use of drones in policing
Drones are indispensable to policing. Whether locating a missing person, tracking offenders or providing a bird’s-eye view of a developing incident, there is so much potential for drones to support front-line officers.
The vision of the NPCC drones portfolio is to enable local forces and their partners to deliver a safe, efficient, effective and sustainable drone capability that meets the air support needs of policing to keep the public safe and reduce crime.
Where are we now?
UK police forces already make around 60,000 drone flights a year and a review in early 2023 found that there is a clear appetite from senior officers to explore how this technology can further support policing in keeping communities safe.
Many police forces are already using drones in increasingly innovative and groundbreaking new ways. The NPCC Drones portfolio is harnessing this innovation using highly trained and skilled pilots and working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
NPCC Drones Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Pathway Programme
The NPCC’s Beyond Visual Line of Sight Pathway Programme is part of the NPCC drones portfolio. It has been underway since March 2023 and is bringing clarity to an area of police business that is not widely understood by the public, police colleagues or other pilots. Working with the Civil Aviation Authority, the drone industry and academia, our vision is to enable the UK’s police forces to deliver a safe, efficient and effective drone operation that meets today’s policing needs and can be expanded for tomorrow’s.
As the technology and airspace regulations evolve to allow pilots to fly drones beyond their line of sight, we see emergency services drones playing a growing role in public safety and crime reduction. It’s a huge programme that will have impact across the UK.
Key workstreams of the BVLOS Pathways Programme
Drone as first responder has the potential to change the way the police and other emergency services respond in urban areas, with a drone deployed swiftly overhead an incident where it can provide eyes on the scene.
Not only will this help control rooms to determine what level of response and resources are required, but it can also give real-time updates to a developing situation, enhancing both police officer and public safety. It’s an exciting new concept and we’re working closely with colleagues in the United States who have recently started trialling the system to learn lessons together.
The NPCC has been running DFR trials in Norwich, Southampton, the West Midlands, Gravesend and most recently, central London. The various trial sites have been testing different aspects of the overall DFR capability in differing environments:
- In Norwich the trials are primarily focused on the safety of the drones, connectivity between components of the DFR eco-system, and the way they avoid over-flying uninvolved people on the ground. They are leading on the integration of drone parachutes.
- In Southampton, the trials are integrated with the Department for Transport’s Solent Future Transport Zone project and have involved testing feeds from radar and other aircraft and drone detection equipment that facilitates the safe use of BVLOS drones.
- In Gravesend and West Midlands the trials have focused on the feed of DFR video into control rooms, how it links with systems such as number plate recognition, and the advantages DFR gives to officers handling motorway, public order and firearms incidents.
- In central London, the trial uses learning from the other sites to bring DFR capabilities to a highly populated urban environment, enhancing community and officer safety.
The Centre of Excellence project team is developing national standards for the selection, training and currency of police drone pilots and we’re going to set these out in a new Authorised Professional Practice or APP that will guide all forces in the most effective use of drones.
We know that becoming a drone pilot is something many police officers would like to do as part of their work so we have designed a progressive qualification framework that will allow more full-time officers and special constables to apply for drone roles. These national qualifications will make mutual aid and personnel transfers across force boundaries much easier.
The Operations project team are focussing on the collection of data so that we can highlight the value and measure accurately the costs of drones to policing. Once we know exactly how useful our drones are in various urban and rural scenarios, we can ensure we know how many and what sorts of drones we need alongside helicopters and fixed wing aircraft to provide policing with the air support required for the future.
This team is also improving the way police drones will be purchased, working to establish an Approved Asset Catalogue.
Like other specialist parts of policing, being safe in our use of drones is paramount and the BVLOS Pathway Programme has developed a strong working relationship with the Civil Aviation Authority. Our inherent professionalism and safety culture are key to supporting the development of the regulations that will lead to expanding police drone capability, especially beyond visual line of sight flying and increased autonomy.
