Source: United Kingdom National Police Chiefs Council
Control room integration supports community safety and police response
Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary and Thames Valley Police Joint Operations Unit has integrated Drone as First Responder (DFR) technology to a police control room in the first trial of its kind in the UK.
For over a year the joint operations unit has been testing the DFR concept with trials at the Isle of Wight Festival and Victorious Music Festival in Portsmouth.
Drone as first responder (DFR) will see a network of drones positioned in urban areas providing 24/7 fast-response ‘eyes in the sky’ for incidents reported to the emergency services. Using the latest ‘drone in a box’ technology, drones will have take-off and landing boxes on the roofs of selected buildings. The drones sit waiting for a call to launch coming from the police control room. When the decision is made to deploy a drone, it will be remotely launched and fly to the incident in less than two minutes.
In Southampton, a drone is situated on a rooftop where it can be deployed from the force control room to give a real time picture of incidents. Not only does this enable the effective deployment of policing resources, but it can also track suspects leaving the scene and record footage for evidential purposes.
In future, the drone will be able to team with neighbouring DFR drones to keep watching the original scene while another drone undertakes other tasks, such as following a person of interest leaving the area. DFR drones can also conduct handovers when battery levels mean they need to return to their base to recharge.
At the end of the task, the DFR drone will return to its landing area and the weather-proof box will close so it can be charged and prepared for its next mission.
Superintendent Taryn Evans is strategic lead for the National Police Chiefs’ Council Drones team. She said:
“Our DFR trials have gathered significant pace over the last year with each one testing out how we can best exploit the potential of drones to support policing and improve the safety of our communities.
“This latest trial shows how DFR integrates with ‘business as usual’ policing. The drone can be remotely deployed from the control room as a key resource in responding to incidents, supporting both community and officer safety.”
Superintendent Adrian Hall is Joint Operations Manager for Thames Valley Police and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, said:
“We’ve already seen DFR enhancing our policing response to a number of live incidents and each one has further demonstrated its value for both now and the future in keeping our local communities safe.
“As we move forward, our focus remains on safety and integration, ensuring that our emergency response capabilities are not just effective but also safe and reliable when it matters most.”
Over the last year the NPCC has been running DFR trials in Norwich, Southampton, the West Midlands and Gravesend. The various trial sites have been testing different aspects of the overall DFR capability in differing environments:
- In Norwich the trials are primarily focused on the safety of the drones, connectivity between components of the DFR eco-system, and the way they avoid over-flying uninvolved people on the ground. They are leading on the integration of drone parachutes.
- In Southampton, the trials are integrated with the Department for Transport’s Solent Future Transport Zone project and have involved testing feeds from radar and other aircraft and drone detection equipment that facilitates the safe use of BVLOS drones.
- In Gravesend and West Midlands the trials have focused on the feed of DFR video into control rooms, how it links with systems such as number plate recognition, and the advantages DFR gives to officers handling motorway, public order and firearms incidents.