The rise of drones is cheaper than that of helicopters. The police are using more and more remote-controlled flying objects.
The police in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate are increasingly taking to the skies: they have used drones in almost 600 operations since 2019. So every year on average well over 100 times. The pilot test with the remote-controlled small aircraft, which began in 2019, should be completed by the end of 2022, as the Ministry of the Interior in Mainz announced to the German Press Agency. This is followed by an evaluation as a basis for further decisions on the use of drones.
According to the ministry, “57 unmanned aircraft systems are currently operational” in the state police. The costs “amount to up to 10,000 euros per system”. The state police have “181 trained long-distance pilots” to control the drones at a maximum speed of around 70 kilometers per hour.
training and use
According to the ministry, the police base their training on “long-distance police aircraft pilots” on nationally agreed minimum standards. A five-day “basic module” deals with the flight operations of drones, including at night and indoors, as well as aviation law, meteorology and coordination with manned aviation. The police helicopter squadron of Rhineland-Palatinate in Winningen near Koblenz is responsible for the drone training.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, police officers use drones to record traffic accidents, to search for missing persons with thermal imaging cameras and to transmit situation reports at major events. The agile aircraft also document crime scenes with their cameras, for example after the rampage in Trier at the end of 2020 with five dead. “We were able to document traces with a measurement accuracy of one centimetre,” the interior ministry said. “Thanks to the rapid crime scene recording, it was possible to release the crime scene the same evening.” The recordings also produce three-dimensional images for court cases.
