Usage

Since the last report in March 2022, the Police Scotland Air Support Unit (ASU) have undertaken 618 tasking incurring at total of 381 flying hours. During this period of activity drones were used for 48 of those tasks completing 46 flying hours.

The police helicopter remains the primary air asset with the ability to respond quickly to immediate threat to life incidents anywhere in Scotland. At every opportunity and where appropriate, police drones are deployed to slower time and pre-planned taskings such as obtaining evidential crime scene imagery or searches in relation long term missing person investigations.

Police Scotland has deployed drones to a variety of taskings. Appendix 1 provides further detail of tasking carried out for the period. The following deployments are worthy of note in terms of the operational benefit to police commanders and in particular the enhanced situational awareness via the drone downlink capability.

Lanarkshire Division, July 2022, public safety deployment for an annual parade. Air support was requested by the silver Commander at an early stage in the planning phase of the policing operation. This enabled early discussion and better understanding of the drone capability and its benefits at such an event, both internally and with key partners including the local authority. A safe area was identified to operate the drone, which minimised disruption to the local community and the parade itself. A community impact assessment for the event included use of a police drone and relevant considerations associated with this. On the day, relevant commanders were issued with police tablet devices which provided live downlink from the drone. Downlink feed was also provided to a large screen within the local area control room and viewed by the silver commander. This allowed police Commanders to monitor the build-up and numbers of those participating in the parade in terms of public safety. The drone monitored the parade until its conclusion.

Sudden Death Enquiry, Northern Division, July 2022. Air support was requested to obtain detailed imagery of a locus after a member of the public had fallen from a cliff. Due to the inaccessibility of the cliff area, images couldn’t be obtained from the shoreline. A police drone was used to obtain high resolution video and still images of the cliff face in order that the locus could be properly examined by the enquiry team including forensic specialists. During the deployment a police tablet device was issued to the team who were able to view live downlink feed from the drone and direct the drone camera operator accordingly. This ensured precise imagery was obtained to meet the needs of the enquiry.