Plan for Edinburgh police drone team
Plans are under way to set up a permanent police drone team in Edinburgh, according to a policing body report.
A similar team will be set up in Glasgow, with ten pilots across both cities to be trained on how to operate the vehicles.
The drones would be bought and operated by the British Transport Police, with one to be procured for each city.
A report before Wednesday’s Scottish Police Authority (SPA) board meeting says a business case for the ‘visual line of sight drones’ was being prepared to enable their purchase.
It states that the deployment model for them is ‘under development’, and that BTP is in regular discussion with Police Scotland and the SPA to ‘ensure alignment’.
A British Transport Police committee is set to receive an update on the drone plans at a meeting in March.
Police Scotland operates a small number of drones, all based in Inverness, Aberdeen and Glasgow.
In April of last year, a Police Scotland drone team, along with officers on bicycles, launched a ‘day of action’ in Edinburgh to target off-road bikers damaging city green spaces.
The operation resulted in the arrest of a 14-year-old male using an off-road bike inappropriately.
It also saw three 15-year-old youths traced in relation to fire-raising and vandalism in a city school playing field, the seizure of an illegal electric bike in Niddrie.
Additionally, a vehicle stolen from Kirkcaldy was found in a park in Musselburgh.
In May, BTP announced it had launched a remote ‘drone in a box’ capability, siting units in areas where trespass and other issues are common.
Pilots in London can fly the drones from remote bases across the country in order to investigate disturbances and support frontline operations.
The drones planned for Edinburgh and Glasgow would require the pilots operating them to be physically close to them while in use.