New military-grade drones for Townsville police
New drones flown out as another crime buster won’t arrive in Townsville for a number of months and won’t be used to chase stolen cars.
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NEW drones flown out as another crime buster won’t arrive in Townsville for a number of months and won’t be used to chase stolen cars.
The state government on Monday announced Townsville and Cairns police will take part in a 12-month drone trial while the southeast has secured two new Polair helicopters.
The drones will be used to track stolen cars, but not chase them, locate offenders, search and rescues, missing people and to use thermal imaging technology.
No details have been released about what type of drones will be used in this crime fighting trial.
Northern Region Assistant Commissioner Mark Wheeler told the Bulletin the drones would be arriving in the country in the coming months.
“This is cutting edge military grade equipment … imported from overseas and not off the shelf,” Mr Wheeler said.
“It’s an enhancement and welcome addition.”
Mr Wheeler said a group of staff will be selected and trained to use the hi-tech drones, and form part of a team who could pilot the craft.
Despite not disclosing how many staff would undergo training, Mr Wheeler said the drones would be available for use day and night.
“We will have a baseline of people to roll out sufficiently.”
He did not confirm how many drones would be based in Townsville during the trial, but said only one could be up at a time, with at least another as a back-up.
He expected them to roll out across the city in the coming few months.
Queensland Police Service Chief Remote Pilot Sergeant Mark Gamer said the police trained to use the drones would only be able to operate them within line of site.
“We don’t use drones for car chases, drones are used for static-like situations like sieges, investigation, intelligence operations where we might have a particular crime hot spot,” Sgt Gamer said.
“In the case of Townsville, we can pre-deploy the drone in that hotspot and have overall observation of quite a large area of where that hot spot is and then direct troops on the ground to where that particular problem is.”
The new drones have the ability to lock-on to up to ten targets at once, with the camera able to track a moving vehicle or person.
“We can provide situational awareness to troops on the ground about the direction of travel about the direction of that (vehicle or person),” Sergeant Gamer said.
He said using drones was actually beyond the legislative capabilities of QPS.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the use of helicopters was “not effective” in Townsville.
“We have a very, very busy air force base there, very close to a commercial airport and in fact, we had a helicopter up and we shut down the entire area. We can’t afford to keep doing that,” Ms Carroll said.
“It was quite frankly dangerous, we can’t keep doing that into the future.”
Burdekin MP Dale Last has said the drones were a “backflip” from the state government, who had previously said drones were already in use in the city.
As of September last year, there were 12 drones operational in the Townsville area, with 32 operational hours conducted in the 2020-21 financial year.
“Almost two years ago, we called for drones to be provided to Police in Townsville to help with tracking down stolen cars,” Mr Last said.
“It’s taken almost two years and almost 2,000 charges for unlawful use of a motor vehicle for Labor to realise the merit in our request.”
LNP call-out government over drones announcement
BURDEKIN MP Dale Last has doubled down on claims the state government is treating North Queenslanders like second-class citizens after they “backflipped” on drones for Townsville police.
On Monday, the state government announced Townsville police would take part in a 12-month trial using military-style drones for police work.
The Opposition police spokesman said the military-grade drones for Townsville and Cairns were a “backflip” from the state government after the LNP campaigned for their use in the 2020 state election.
Mr Last said he, and former LNP candidate Glenn Doyle, called for drones to be made available to Townsville police, but at the time, Police Minister Mark Ryan said drones were already in use in the city.
As of September last year, there were 12 drones operational in the Townsville area, with 32 operational hours conducted in the 2020-21 financial year.
“Almost two years ago, we called for drones to be provided to Police in Townsville to help with tracking down stolen cars,” Mr Last said.
“It’s taken almost two years and almost 2,000 charges for unlawful use of a motor vehicle for Labor to realise the merit in our request.”
Mr Last also called into question the timeline for introduction of the drones.
“As recently as late last year, Minister Ryan tried to blame the federal government for Police not being able to fully utilise drones,” Mr Last said.
In a Question on Notice from September, Mr Ryan said Commonwealth legislation did not permit drones to be flown in populated areas, including homes and businesses, or to be operated within 30m of a person.
However, the state government has now advised that QPS is the holder of a Remote Operators Certificate and all RPAS pilots have a Remote Pilot Licence and receive regular training and testing from the QPS Chief Remote Pilot.
“To now say that they don’t need a permit is yet another backflip by Minister Ryan and Labor. People in Townsville and Cairns want some consistency, not a Minister that backflips more often than a circus clown.”
“We also want to be treated equally when it comes to tackling crime. If those 2,000 stolen vehicles were worth $20,000 each, that’s $40M worth of stolen vehicles in Townsville alone while the Minister has sat on his hands.”
“For that $40M the victims of crime in Townsville get more hypocrisy and more backflips from Labor. I wouldn’t call that good value for money and I doubt the victims of crime would either.”
“While the South East corner gets three new helicopters, the residents of North Queensland have to make do with drones and that simply confirms what I have been saying all along and that is, this Minister is treating North Queenslanders like second class citizens.”
New military-grade drones for Townsville police
TOWNSVILLE police will get their hands on military-grade drones this week as part of a $400,000 investment in airborne policing.
The state government has announced it will deliver the state-of-the-art remotely piloted high standard and advanced mission capable aircraft (RPAS) as part of a 12-month trial in Townsville.
Police will use the new drones for enhanced intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance capabilities and advancements like artificial intelligence technologies for tracking vehicles and sophisticated thermal imaging cameras for locating lost people.
In the lead up to the 2020 state election, the state government also promised new cameras, including drones, for Townsville police as part of a hi-tech crackdown on hooning.
Townsville-based Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Wheeler said this was an example of using technology to adapt and deliver better outcomes.
“The QPS has been successfully using RPAS operationally for many years in specialist units,” Mr Wheeler said.
“But this new high standard and advanced mission capable aircraft takes it to another level and will provide Townsville police with enhanced capabilities including higher quality tools and image analytics.
“It means that officers on the ground will receive a live feed of the images being recorded on the new aerial platform.
“It’s important to remember though that aircraft don’t make arrests.
“The benefit of this technology is how it may be able to assist police on the ground.”
The drones are designed to complement the three helicopters already in operation in the North.
Acting Chief Superintendent Marcus Hill said the three choppers plus the new RPAS would give police a wide range of capabilities to help meet operational requirements.
The state government has also announced two new helicopters for the southeast.
While there has previously been a push for dedicated police helicopters in the North, police have said resources would be better invested into technologies like the drones given the restricted airspace and smaller populations.
Townsville police will not need to seek permission from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, which controls the use of drones in Australian airspace.
The QPS is the holder of a Remote Operators Certificate and all RPAS pilots have a Remote Pilot Licence and receive regular training and testing from the QPS Chief Remote Pilot.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said this would give emergency services wider capabilities in the North.
“Not only will we have this support for law enforcement, it will assist our colleagues in organisations like the SES and marine rescue in our work keeping the community safe,” Ms Carroll said.
Police Minister Mark Ryan said this innovative approach would be a new eye in the sky and a peek at what the future may look like.
“Once again this is the Queensland Police Service looking to always be at the cutting edge and be early adopters of the latest technologies that may assist their efforts to support community safety,” he said.
Townsville MP Scott Stewart said the government would always back police with the latest and best resources.
“The government is making the biggest investment in policing in more than three decades to deliver more than 2000 extra personnel, and today’s announcement demonstrates the government is also backing police with the latest technology,” Mr Stewart said.
Originally published as New military-grade drones for Townsville police
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