REVENGE OF THE DRONES
Guards got own back by using cr aft to nab escaped lags
JAIL bosses are using remotely controlled drones to hunt down escaped prisoners, the Sunday People can reveal.
The secret tactic has turned the tables on inmates who are already using drones to have drugs and phones flown in.
The camera- carrying craft are being operated by the elite National Tactical Response Group – known as the Prison Service’s SAS – which responds to all riots, hostage crises and protests in jails.
They were used last month when two prisoners got out of HMP Lindholme, we have learned.
A lunchtime roll check revealed the pair were missing from their cells. Governors set up a gold command team to co-ordinate the search – the highest level of response.
The four-engined drone was used to hover over the former RAF base near Doncaster, South Yorks, as patrol dogs worked on the ground.
The device sent footage from its camera to staff who viewed it on a laptop. The men were captured that evening and have been moved to a closed prison.
Potent
A prison source revealed: “Drones have only become operational recently and have proved a game changer. They will be a potent weapon against escapees.”
The purchase of drones has never been revealed by the Ministry of Justice, which oversees the Prison Service.
But a spokesman confirmed: “We have a number of drones we can use to locate missing prisoners and monitor incidents at height.”
The spokesman refused to comment on the gadgets’ operational use, on what the drones cost or which the models it purchased because of “security concerns.”
The MOJ called drones “national resources” to be “deployed to a particular prison as required”.
Forty-five people have been convicted of illicit drone activity around prisons since 2015, figures show. Those involved were jailed for a total of more than 140 years.
Ministers launched Operation Trenton last year to intercept the flying devices close to prison grounds.