police drones

More countries are looking to follow the lead of UK cities that have deployed drones in an effort to identify, punish, and ultimately deter people responsible the surging problem of illegal dumping in public areas.

French police will again be permitted to use drones for surveillance and certain other law enforcement purposes, the nation’s constitutional authority has ruled, ending the nearly two-year legal ban of that activity on grounds it posed privacy violation risks.

The Dallas Police Department has said it will be increasing its use of drones in response to certain emergencies and criminal situations, as well as in investigations of open cases.

During a search operation in the Oxfordshire countryside, a UK police drone lost connection with the controller and was found miles away in a children’s playground the next day, a report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has found.

Police officials in the Pacific island nation of Fiji are fighting mad over a downed surveillance drone they say was put out of commission by a jamming device used by illegal pot farmers – not coincidentally because it was looking for signs of illegal pot farming.

A pair of draft bills introduced to Ohio’s legislature outlines restrictions for drone flights by both private individuals and police forces in what, if passed, would be the state’s first laws regulating operation beyond Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines.

The Dallas Police Department is under intense scrutiny after a security breach allowed over 600 hours of aerial surveillance video to be published on a privacy activist website – footage from helicopters that quickly led many suspicious observers turn their gazes toward drones.

Cops in the eastern England city of Norfolk have gotten with the aerial tech program in a big way. After introducing drones into its operational assets less than three years ago, Norfolk’s police force deployed the craft in nearly 1,500 missions in the past year.

Chula Vista, the second-largest city in San Diego County, California, uses drones as “first responders.” The flying robots are often the first to arrive on the scene when an incident is reported, and play an instrumental role in catching criminals or assisting detentions. And to make sure that citizens retain their trust in these drones, Chula Vista Police Department (CVPD) gives residents the ability to view the exact location, flight path, and purpose of each police drone deployment.

The Welsh coppers at the sticks have really hit the, er, air soaring. The recently formed North Wales Police drone unit has racked up a series of successful operations that has earned them plaudits from the region’s top law enforcement official as “high-flying heroes.” 

After 16 hours of being missing, a 72-year-old man was found crouched in a fetal position in thick vegetation by the Pueblo Police Department in Colorado. The essential element that led to the missing man’s discovery? A DJI Mavic 2 drone.

The police in a suburban community of Canada are leading a new effort to crack down on dangerous driving with the help of drones. And having an eye in the sky is already showing results. Recently, the police in the City of Delta nabbed a speedster driving at 157 km/h in an 80 km/h zone.

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) perform a great many tasks in countless places, with those capacities and venues expanding all the time. This week a drone was successfully flown in the UK on a less frequent mission than one usually hears about: policing areas exposed during low tides for illegal shellfish pickers.

To many people, the pilfering of building areas is a quasi-victimless crime: goods are boosted, businesses file claims, insurance pays up. But that illegal activity costs affected companies hundreds of millions each year, which is why some are now relying on drones to patrol construction sites to battle thieves.

The 1930s-40 radio show The Shadow famously began each episode with the reminder/warning that its crime-fighting hero “knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men,” and relied on that knowledge to bring criminals to justice. A UK police drone has gone one better by using the heat lurking in the bodies of three bank robbers to help nearby officers bust them (while taking a nifty video of the cuffing to boot).

Indicative of its status as one of Europe’s most popular vacation destinations, Spain is currently dealing with a surge from the 91.2 million cars expected across the nation’s roads this summer. As part of their effort to ensure that travel glut circulates well (or as smoothly as inevitable traffic snarls allow), Spanish police are flying drones to keep watch for breakdowns, accidents, and ­– not least of all ­– driving offenses.

Researchers in the Czech Republic have developed a way to make uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) more effective in monitoring large groups of people. To achieve that, scientists are making drones smarter by linking them to neural networks that detect when crowds under surveillance show signs indicating trouble.

Motorists around the world have been forced to adapt their ill-advised bending of rules of the road to the spreading presence of tech’s cop proxies – whether cameras capturing red light burners, or fixed radar boxes photographing the plates of speeding cars. Drones have also been added to that police enforcement mix, as law-breaking drivers in Poland have now painfully discovered.

The Malaysian government has approved a budget of $11.3 million (MYR 48 million) to allow its police department to purchase 16 vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones. The budget endorsement comes at a time when thousands of medics, who have played a key role in the country’s COVID-19 response, are protesting over low wages and job insecurity. As a result, many on social media are questioning the cost of these drones, pointing out that the New York Police Department was able to secure 14 drones for $480,000 (MYR 2 million) only in 2018.

The latest innovation to battle thousands of migrants attempting illegal Channel crossings from northern France to England has been thwarted on legal grounds. Plans to fly police drones detecting and monitoring the organization and launch of illicit passages have been grounded by French laws as violating individual privacy rights.

As an initiative, it qualifies as “doing good for drones for good.” Tech, cloud, and solutions provider Aquiline Drones is offering its uncrewed aerial system (UAS) commercial training and education program free of charge to first responders across the US in gratitude for the work they do on everyone’s behalf.