Police drone boss wants national ‘eye in the sky’ to be launched

POLICE should create a national “eye in the sky” drone squad to help tackle major incidents such as terror attacks, according to a senior force specialist who says the unmanned craft can often provide better value than helicopters.

Perran Bonner, who manages the UK’S biggest police drone force, said the unmanned craft had already helped save lives, find missing people or bodies, protect officers and the public from harm and map road accidents to enable traffic to be cleared more quickly.

He cited cases of criminals spotted hiding on rooftops, a car crash victim saved from hypothermia after a thermal imaging drone found him in freezing temperatures and an aerial search for two bodies that could otherwise have cost the taxpayer up to £300,000.

“Instead of a helicopter sitting in the sky for hours on end burning jet fuel, you can sit there with a battery-powered drone,” said Mr Bonner, manager for Essex Police’s drone force, which comprises 65 pilots across seven specialist teams and 19 drones, including one fixed-wing unmanned craft.

“If there’s a threat to life and firearms are being deployed, you often need eyes in the sky to protect members of the public and the police team and get them to where they need to be.”

More than three-quarters of the 43 forces in England and Wales now have drones. “I can foresee a time where we are looking at a national unmanned capability whereby there is an eye in the sky – not to spy on everybody but there to help people, and flown out of a central unit,” said Mr Bonner.

He envisaged three tiers: one would be a police officer trained to deploy a small drone in the back of his or her police car.

Second would be a dedicated team responding over a wider area and the third would be a regional drone squad carrying video cameras to live-stream footage to a control room that could be deployed to big national incidents.