Port Phillip police using drones to help catch people flouting lockdown restrictions
Thinking of ducking down to the beach during the lockdown period? You’d better think again because the police have got a friend up on high helping them track down law breakers in Port Phillip and Stonnington.
Inner South
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A police drone will patrol the skies above Port Phillip and Stonnington to help catch people breaching COVID-19 lockdown laws.
The aerial arsenal is set to hit the skies in coming days.
Port Phillip Inspector Nigel McGuire-White said the remote-piloted drone would “give police an eye in the sky” at areas where people have been reported to breach restrictions, including skate parks, parks and beaches.
“Right now it’ll be mainly used to check people aren’t breaching restrictions,” he said.
“But they’ll be really useful at major events like Pride March, St Kilda Festival and the Grand Prix if and when we can have mass gatherings again.”
Pilot, Leading Senior Constable Ruben Gilles from the Stonnington crime investigation unit, told the Leader the drone could be flown up to 7km away from the controller and could read a number plate from as far as 500m away.
“It will be a brilliant tool for crowd control at big events — we can get an overall bird's eye view and if someone tries to evade police we can follow them with the drone and provide live tracking data to the team on the ground about where that person is,” he said.
Leading Sen-Constable Gilles said the drone was equipped with infra-red capabilities which could provide a heat map to help find people in the dark.
It will also record footage which can later be used as evidence.
The drone will be used throughout the Southern Metropolitan police region, which stretches from Port Phillip to the Mornington Peninsula and includes Cardinia, Casey and Frankston.
“We’ll be able to use it when we get called to brawls in Casey or on the beach at Rye during schoolies,” Leading Sen-Constable Gilles said.
Insp McGuire-White said Port Phillip had recorded the most calls related to possible lockdown breaches among the local government areas.
“Not all of them turn out to be breaches but the people in Port Phillip are right on to it,” he said.
“So beware, if you’re thinking of breaching, your neighbours will probably dob you in.”
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