Drones cutting number of police helicopter call-outs
Drones have been used to cut the number of Police Scotland helicopter call-outs, it has emerged after concerns were raised.
Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr questioned whether the cost of sending out the force helicopter was a factor in the number of missions having dropped in recent years.
However, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) said deployment decisions were made for operational, not financial reasons. Drones have also reduced the need for helicopters to be deployed.
Police helicopter use in Scotland has fallen in the past year, according to figures obtained by the Tories via Freedom of Information.
In 2019, the aircraft have been dispatched on average 133 times per month, a fiveyear low and down from 153 per month in 2018.
Mr Kerr said: “It’s not cheap to send out a police helicopter, and clearly the decision is being made somewhere to reduce the number of journeys it is making.
“That’s against the backdrop of an SNP government which has not properly resourced our police service for years.
“We already knew the Nationalists’ neglect of Police Scotland was putting additional strain on officers and the brave work they do.
“Now we can see the impact on operational decisions too.
“Police helicopters play a vital role in detecting crime, so it’s extremely concerning to see an increasing reluctance to call upon that resource.”
A spokesman for the police authority insisted that cost is not a factor on whether it uses helicopters by officers.
“Police Scotland make decisions on deployment based on operational reasons and not on possible financial implications,” the spokesman said.
“A number of remotely-piloted aircraft have been purchased by Police Scotland to provide a wider range of flexible air support, in particular to support the search for missing people, and that will impact on the requirement of helicopter support.”
A Scottish Government spokesman also rejected the Tories’ claims that cost was a factor.
“Decisions to deploy aircraft are an operational matter for Police Scotland,” he added.
“Despite constraints on Scotland’s public services through a decade of UK austerity, policing services have been maintainedandimprovedandsince 2016-17 the annual budget for policing has increased by more than £80 million, bringing it to £1.2 billion for 201920.”