Building the case for UAV’s in

a law enforcement context

Assistant Commissioner Alistair Dawson APM

Queensland Police Service

Touching on� Technology in Policing

� Recency of UAVs

� Risk

� Governance Frameworks

� What happens when

� Referencing

> “Eyes in the sky”, Inquiry into drones and the regulation of air safety and privacy, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs.

Technology in policing� Computers

� Zebedee

� DNA

� Livescan

� Speed Cameras

� Radios

� Tasers

� Body worn video

� Unmanned systems

Recency of UAVs� UK 1848 steam powered propeller driven model

aircraft with a 10 foot wingspan called the aerial steam carriage. Successfully flew for a distance of approximately 60 yards.

� USA 1896 successful flight of a steam powered model called Aerodrome Number 5, flew along the Potomac river for 3/4 mile.

Recency of UAVs� March 1918 the Charles Kettering Aerial

Torpedo, (Kettering Bug) was a parallel effort backed by the American Army.

� V1 Buzz bomb.

� April 1942 Interstate TDR “assault drone”

Managing� Risk

� Perceptions

� Expectations

� Reality

� Public Confidence

http://wildrc.com/htmlpages/raptor.html

GovernanceTwo key areas

� CASA Regulations

� Privacy (Information Management)

Miss� Wednesday 2 October 2013 RPA crashed into the Sydney

Harbour Bridge and landed on the bridge train line. (ATSB)

� 6 April 2014 Geraldton WA, triathelete allegedly struck by an RPA being used to film the event – matter with Commonwealth DPP. (Eyes in the sky)

� On 22 March 2014, at about 2200hrs, a Bell 412 helicopter, lifted off from John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle for a flight of about 2 NM to the Newcastle Westpac helipad, with five crew members on board. As the helicopter descended through about 1,000 ft AGL and banked to the left, the pilot observed the UAV about 100 m away and at about the same level as the helicopter. (ATSB)

Miss� On 12 September 2013, at about 0930, the pilot of

an Ayres S2R aircraft, commenced aerial agricultural operations on a property about 37 km south-

southwest of Horsham aerodrome, Victoria.

� Operator of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV),

Sensefly eBee 178, arrived at the Echo mine site to conduct an aerial photography 1 to 1.5km separation.

� Both aircraft 100-150 ft AGL and came within about 100 m horizontally of each other.

ATSB report

Hit

A small RQ-7 Shadow UAV apparently collided with what looks like it might be an Air Force MC-130 in the skies over Afghanistan read more: http://defensetech.org/2011/08/17/midair-collision-between-a-c-130-and-a-uav/#ixzz37Q6L62EV Defense.org

Future• Different law enforcement agencies have different

needs.

• It is unlikely to replace aspects of policing at this

time.

• Areas for short term potential:

> High risk

> Forensic examination of larger outdoor crime scenes

> Disaster Management – post impact

> Forensic Crash investigation

Future� Continued development of technology and materials.

� Focus on barriers to safety (Eyes in the sky, p. 16)