Drones for law enforcement?

Do we really need drones for security, surveillance or beat patrolling? If you’ve noticed, everyone likely knows where their nearest police station is, and it’s become common knowledge that you can get assistance by dialing 100 from any phone. So far, this has been the single biggest lifeline for Indians in terms of law enforcement. 

A couple of years ago, Bengaluru City Police put out a huge campaign to raise awareness about how quickly they respond when they get a call on the 100 helpline. Pictures of the response team taking calls from the call center were all over social media. It certainly seems very easy to have access to police protection, but in reality, are there really enough police personnel to serve 1.3 billion Indians? Reports say that there are only 138 policemen for every 100,000 Indians. There are about 2.2 million police jobs in India today and the forces still have almost a quarter of their vacancies left. 

You might find a policeman manning traffic at every busy junction on your way home from work and doing their rounds on their beat once or twice. That is still a stretch, considering that policemen say that they are required to patrol their beat each hour of the day. It’s a zone of nearly 1-2 km radius and they probably have to be on foot most of the time. Disrupting the way law enforcement exists now, the biggest difference police forces have been able to make since the 100 helpline is the deployment of drones for beat patrolling. 

Given the enormous responsibility that the Indian police force has over the safety of our citizens, it is necessary for them to be fully equipped to deal with everything that happens on the ground. These police drones make a real difference by enhancing their bandwidth to keep an eye on their beats. The police are still the best first responders to any emergency on the ground. Human intelligence and human intervention are highly necessary to fully serve the citizens they are protecting.

The tactical advantage that drones give makes it possible for the police force to ensure maximum accuracy in reading security situations. The most critical thing that tactical drones accomplish is the detection of anomalies over a wider area in a fraction of the time it takes to do manually. The NETRAv3 UAV alone can cover a large area within a radius of up to 5 kms in under an hour. This is not only integral during the daytime, especially for crowd control and traffic monitoring, but also essential for night-time surveillance. A thermal imaging camera identifies and captures movements and activities on the ground even in pitch dark and relays real-time information to the ground control station.

Used strategically, surveillance capabilities can be expand to scanning number plates of speeding highway traffic/no parking areas, reading individual behaviors of people in a crowd, intercepting and recording proof that establishes a crime, and providing accurate visuals of inaccessible areas any time of the day by using drones for law enforcement. Leveraging ideaForge’s technology to do the best. An example of how drones are used for security and surveillance is how ideaForge deployed a UAV to monitor an election rally.

If anyone is planning a public gathering, they are required to inform the police about it and get permission to organize it at a specific time, date, and place. These permits allow the police to prepare for the event and ensure maximum security for people. However, in case of an unusual surge in the number of people, a security breakdown is imminent. A drone has the capability to read the general pattern of a crowd and detect anomalies in it.

For instance, in a political rally, it is normal for people to punch their fists in the air (while shouting slogans). They could also be holding placards or flags in their hands. This is completely different from punching their fist forward, as if to harm someone. A more subtle difference to map is to see what they’re holding in their hands. Holding the pole of a flag is not the same as holding a stick that one can strike others with. Drones can eventually identify these differences and alert the ground control about it. Pinpointing the exact location that requires attention reduces the response time for the police to act effectively to control the situation.

The pressure of regular beat patrolling can also be lifted with drones. Two beats could be of the same area size with different densities in population, however, the number of policemen assigned may be the same. Usually, the place with more number of people residing in it would be subject to higher security risk. It could also be the case with a crowded commercial area or a marketplace for most parts of the day. It’s impossible for the human eye to detect each and every pickpocket, scooter riding up a footpath, or the nonchalant eve-teaser. This is where drones can make that critical difference in security surveillance.