Police & UAS

How long will it be before your local bobby is using a Phantom to nick your local robber? Well the Police in Wisconsin recently used a UAS to catch a suspect, hiding in a pond. Ha, you cant make this s*!t up.

http://www.cnet.com/news/police-spot-robbery-suspect-with-drone-arrest-him/

With the CAA, recently handing all illegal UAS matters over to the Police, this will only serve to bring more Police attention to UAS. Both good and bad. In my opinion, this will lead to more UK Police forces, seeing the benefits of having multiple ‘eyes in the sky’, utilising them, just like the Wisconsin Police.

Is this a possibility? Are the Police be required to adhere to the same rules as Hobbyist or Commercial UAS Operators?

Surely it wouldn’t be fair to suggest they are used for Commercial use. Though technically the ‘Pilot in Command’ gets a salary for flying the UAS, but he is a Police Officer first and foremost.

Ultimately, were finance is concerned, using a small fleet of UAS, say 5 Inspires and 10 Phantoms. is always going to be cheaper than the monthly cost of a running and maintaing a full blown Police Helicopter!

When asked about the extortionate cost of running a Police Helicopters, a local Police Force Spokeswoman, stated that £800-£1000 an hour cost, is “justified by the man hours it saves” – You could ground it a year, equip every single Police Car with a Phantom, or Solo, or probably even an Inspire with a thermal and night vision camera to boot, and still have change left over!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1304187/Outrage-police-use-helicopter-catch-shoplifter-cost-1-000-taxpayer.html

So if it is accepted that the Police are not using UAVs for ‘commercial’ applications, then what rules would apply?

Lets pretend for the sake of amusement, that Police cars are equipped with a UAS in the boot, linked to dual screen, a portable one and one mounted to the dash of the car. Would every single Police Officer that users the UAS be required to complete a similar competency exam, similar to the BNUC-s or RPQS? That would prove costly in the current format. Huge amounts of paper work etc etc etc.

In the future 50 years from now, this might be a reality, because the technology within UAS will become so advanced. But that future is well off, and in the mean time, i do think it would be great to see more Police Force utilise UAS.

There are various forces across the UK using UAS for crime prevention now. Surrey and Sussex Police recently spent £250,000 on a new fleet of UAVs! Wonder what platforms they are using, and what rules the are required to adhere too?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32070689

Im not suggesting that every Police Office should or even could be trained to fly a UAS, but in all honestly, in certain circumstances, anyone with eyes and enough fingers can fly a UAS.

My three year old daughter, Esmé, can use my Mac, iphone, ipad and thus she is able to ‘fly’ my Inspire. She knows how to ‘take off’, raise the landing gear, turn the camera film herself and land it. Granted i hold the controller, she hold the ipad, but you get my point. Give it a few years, and UAS will be able to follow a designated target and autonomously fly, avoiding building and people, without the need of a Pilot.

When you are training for you’re UAS licence, who do they tell you can legally encroach on your airspace? A Police Helicopter. They can fly where other Helicopter Pilots cant. If the Police are going to use UAS then the chances are they aren’t going to be operating within the same rules as us anyway!

TU