The future of police aviation

With opportunities offered by the advancement of technology, the future of police aviation is exciting.

Drones are becoming an increasingly deployed tool for police forces. In fact, nationally, in 2022/23, drones were deployed 18,794 times by police forces.

We are currently exploring how Beyond the Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) un-crewed aircraft can be used to enhance the value we bring and increase the capabilities of NPAS and forces to police from the skies.

Over the last 12 months, our Futures and Innovation Team has been on a path of discovery, to understand the wider requirements of un-crewed aircraft.

Safely unlocking BVLOS relies on technology to detect and avoid other air traffic and navigate ground hazards. We have been supporting several projects, such as the Norwich Drone First Responder solution, which utilises a ‘drone in a box’ to provide quick deployment, short duration, surveillance capabilities.

Thames Valley Police has chosen to adopt an eVTOL (electrical vertical take-off and landing) fixed wing capability using ground-based ‘detect and avoid’ technology.

Our role has been to look at the supportive technologies and see how they align to aviation regulation.

These projects also help inform us on the capabilities we require for our own trial of large un-crewed aircraft platforms.

Payload comparisons against existing sensor capabilities on our crewed aircraft are currently underway, with interesting results.

And we have been using our logged call data to identify mission types and locations and determine where an un-crewed capability, operated by NPAS pilots, could provide the biggest impact for policing.

There is still a considerable amount of work to do but we have the expertise and skills to shape an exciting future for police air support.