Phone a drone plan to protect the vulnerable walking home at night

Unmanned aircraft with spotlight would arrive in four minutes under plans submitted to Home Office

VULNERABLE women walking home at night could be guarded from stalkers and sex attackers by drones under plans to be submitted to the Government.

Women in fear of an attack would be able to use a phone app to summon a drone which could arrive within minutes armed with a powerful spotlight and thermal cameras to frighten off any potential assailant.

The drone system will be tested on a university campus to protect students and staff but its inventors believe the devices could ultimately take over many of the search and surveillance functions of police helicopters at a fraction of the cost.

The plan, created by a team of former police officers and Civil Aviation Authority experts, is to be submitted for funding to the Government’s Innovate research programme which is designed to promote cutting-edge technology.

Richard Gill, founder of Drone Defence, which has developed the drone technology, said the trial at Nottingham University aimed to demonstrate whether drones could offer a cheaper, less noisy and more environmentally friendly service to protect the public than police helicopters.

The plan came to fruition in the wake of the outcry over violence against women that followed the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by police officer Wayne Couzens.

It is envisioned that anyone fearing an attack could call one of the £35,000 Aeroguard drones via an app to arrive within four minutes. Using AI, it will track phone signals flying at 200ft monitored from a control room by a qualified pilot ready to take over if needed. On arrival, it would shine the spotlight on the attacker to deter them as well as film them for any future prosecution.

“We aim to get a prototype off the ground in Nottingham for £500,000,” said Mr Gill, a former Army intelligence officer.

“It is a high-capability drone that costs just £100 an hour but can do 80 per cent of what a police helicopter can do. It cannot do high-speed pursuits but it can do the other tasks such as searching for people and ground surveillance.

“It will take about a year to put together as a proof of concept that drones can provide support for people at a fraction of the cost and in minutes rather than tens of minutes.”

It costs police forces up to £3,200 an hour to deploy one of the 19 helicopters from the National Police Air Service with its crew of up to five.

It has similar surveillance cameras as a drone but it is noisier and uses aviation fuel rather than electricity. A police helicopter has the edge on speed, at 180mph versus a drone’s maximum of 50mph, and the capacity to remain airborne at two hours, versus a drone’s 55 minutes.

However, the developers of the drone technology say it could reach its location within four minutes compared with 20 minutes to deploy a police helicopter.

“London on average has a police helicopter above it for eight hours a day.

“For the same price as they pay for the helicopter, you could have 25 drones offering 250 flying hours per day. This would need five base locations across the city,” said Mr Gill.

Trials have already started of longrange drones to replace police helicopters in the pursuit of suspects and searches for missing people.

A technical report has been prepared for Home Office ministers to determine if the drone could be recruited to the police “air force” because of its superior aerial capabilities, namely the time it can stay aloft and heights it can reach to silently spy on locations and search for suspects.

‘It is a high-capability drone that costs just £100 an hour but can do 80 per cent of what a police helicopter can do’