Navigating complex skies with drones as first responders

The programme to explore the use of drones as first responders is well underway in policing with Superintendent Taryn Evans from the Metropolitan Police taking the lead both in the capital and for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). She talks to me about the development of the programme and during my visit to see her in a central London police station, I get to see first-hand how a drone is dispatched to incident locations across the capital.

Drones as first responders (DFR) are a ‘stepping stone’ to true beyond visual line of sight capability for drones in policing, says Taryn. Operating since October last year, six forces are now using DFR, with different geographies that will give a strong baseline about what is possible across the UK. Another eight are the pipeline which will see 14 out of 43 police forces in England and Wales using this tech.

The NPCC’s Beyond Visual Line of Sight Pathway Programme is part of the NPCC drones portfolio. It has been underway since March 2023 and has seen the technology and airspace regulations evolve to allow pilots to fly drones beyond their line of sight.

I watch the team as they pilot drones around London, responding quickly and with an agility that means they are rarely seen or heard but give a speedy ‘eyes-on’ when time is critical. The drone operations team collect a lot of data about safety and performance along the way.

“We have a standardised data collection format, and that feeds into a software platform that we’ve written specifically for the purposes of monitoring flight performance and safety.”

The data is critical to understanding what the drones are doing and the benefits they bring, but also how much time they are saving as efficiency is central to the development of this tech. The work that Taryn is overseeing is reporting into the NPCC aviation lead, Met Police Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor. The programme is nationally funded by the Home Office with around £5m provided last year for this work.

Sharing learning is important, with the operational teams in the six forces meeting weekly to track issues, barriers, innovations and opportunities. As well as discussing technical issues around latency or the quality of video feeds, Taryn and others are looking at how the public is accepting this technology.

“When I started this, I was  was surprised by how supportive the public were given this is a new and emerging technology and people will naturally have lots of questions about what it can do.”

It is, she adds, about increased precision policing. It’s a phrase that I have often heard Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley use when he’s talking about improving policing in London.

The set up in the control room is impressive with many large screens showing maps of London, the areas where other aircraft are in position including London’s Air Ambulance. “We’ve got an MOU with them,” Taryn explains “We contact them every morning to tell them that we’re active. If they’re going somewhere within one of our zones, they will call us. We’ve got an alert system on the phone that tells us they’re coming. They’ll call us on the radio to tell us where they’re going. We respond to them, and then we can monitor them on our systems.”

The drone is able to fly across London informed by a range of systems that aren’t just about alerting them about other aircraft but also, reassuringly, cranes. Knowing where the cranes are in London is vital to prevent the drones from crashing and of course there are some no-fly zones like over Buckingham Palace.

I ask about a long line on the map that seems to have been blocked out and I am told: “That is because there’s a really tall building there, and it blocks the signal. So we put that in to stop us being able to fly behind that building and lose signal.” It’s a complex terrain for a drone to navigate with plenty of congestion along the way.

The locations for the three DFRs are strategic, covering a line from north to south, starting with Islington, then Charing Cross down to Kennington south of the river Thames. The drone is located on the roof with two in position on each and naturally the Charing Cross drone is the busiest, located in the heart of tourist central London. Overall, Taryn says they are doing 170 flights per week and during my time in the control room there are three alone.

From a video feed on top of Charing Cross police station, I watch a large white box open up like a Christmas present, with a drone emerging swiftly up and out at a surprising pace. The instructions coming from the pilots sitting in front of me as they complete pre-flight checks and then tell the drone where to go and flying at 400 feet it can see a number plate from 600 feet away. The quality of the video feed on the screens is super sharp.

And it’s not only the police that can see the video feeds from the drones, Taryn says that they can seen a link to a partner, such as London Fire Brigade, and they can see the same feed simultaneously. That’s a great way to share situational awareness during an incident without every service investing in their own capability.

With DFR operations only taking place during the day for now, it’s already showing the Met there are ways to save officer time and reduce the risks they face by having better information about a location.

Taryn ends our conversation by describing a knife incident where the drone view showed an armed perpetrator dropping a knife before the officer arrived at the scene. “The police knew he was unarmed. They came in, they dealt with it. That’s good, isn’t it?” she asks. “It makes you feel safer. It makes me feel safer. I don’t know how you quantify what didn’t happen but the drone was at the heart of that.”

Taryn is hosting a panel on drones as first responders at The Emergency Tech Show on 16 September. She and her panel will talk about the development of the technology and the future for its use across policing. The show takes place on 16 and 17 September at the NEC in Birmingham. Register to attend here.