The SA Police Service (SAPS) has turned to the skies in its ongoing battle against crime, using drone technology as a vital tool in its national crime prevention and intelligence-driven operations.
Integrated across all nine provinces and embedded into SAPS’s five-pillar crime-fighting approach of intelligence gathering, proactive policing, combat and reaction, reactive detection, and communication, drones are now vital in urban and rural operations.
According to the SAPS, the use of drones has proved instrumental, particularly within the proactive policing pillar, where officers carry out crime prevention duties using drone technology.
Police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said drones are being used through specialised units such as the air wing.
She said all nine provinces have drone capabilities and this is achieved through the co-ordination and deployment of assets and human resources, either on a permanent basis or temporarily during intelligence-driven operations.
“These drones are being used in rural and high crime areas,” she said.
There are ongoing training courses for officers and another course will commence in May, said Mathe.
“We have run several training courses over the last couple of years to ensure that we have trained and certified personnel across all nine provinces.”
As and when the budget allows, the goal would be to increase the number of operational drones and to train more drone operators.
Drone surveillance helping efficiency in policing: SAPS
Police are using drones within strict guidelines to ensure there are no privacy infringements for non-authorised operations
The SA Police Service (SAPS) has turned to the skies in its ongoing battle against crime, using drone technology as a vital tool in its national crime prevention and intelligence-driven operations.
Integrated across all nine provinces and embedded into SAPS’s five-pillar crime-fighting approach of intelligence gathering, proactive policing, combat and reaction, reactive detection, and communication, drones are now vital in urban and rural operations.
According to the SAPS, the use of drones has proved instrumental, particularly within the proactive policing pillar, where officers carry out crime prevention duties using drone technology.
Police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said drones are being used through specialised units such as the air wing.
She said all nine provinces have drone capabilities and this is achieved through the co-ordination and deployment of assets and human resources, either on a permanent basis or temporarily during intelligence-driven operations.
“These drones are being used in rural and high crime areas,” she said.
There are ongoing training courses for officers and another course will commence in May, said Mathe.
“We have run several training courses over the last couple of years to ensure that we have trained and certified personnel across all nine provinces.”
As and when the budget allows, the goal would be to increase the number of operational drones and to train more drone operators.
Though police cannot share specific cases for successful operations due to the sensitivity of the information and the safety of the drone operators, Mathe said drones have been used successfully:
Mathe noted that drone surveillance has improved both cost and efficiency in policing.
“Drone operational costs are much lower than the cost of operating a manned aircraft. Aerial surveillance work and crime prevention duties that previously were done with manned aircraft are now being done using drones. This has allowed the SAPS to channel the manned aircraft resources to areas where human intervention is required to either prevent crime or to effect an arrest.
“Lower operating costs allow the operators to spend more time airborne, which increases the efficiency of analysing the footage received.”
Drones operate in both controlled and uncontrolled civilian airspace. However, Mathe said the challenges of air traffic separation are mitigated by the use and communication with the air traffic controllers and other airspace users via very high frequency (VHF) hand-held radios.
“Similar to manned aircraft operations, drone operators perform their duties upon receiving a task from their operational commanders. These tasks are specific and traceable as each drone records and stores its ground positioning system (GPS) location and height every second during the flight while airborne.
“Any member found to be infringing the privacy of others or found to be using the drones for other tasks other than those they were authorised to do will be charged through the police’s disciplinary process, which may lead to a dismissal.”
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