Recently I’ve been watching Traffic Cops and Road Wars two programmes that follow British Police officers in traffic cars (and often the traffic helicopter) as they handle a range of drivers from those with no tax, MOT, insurance or license to high speed pursuits escaping from another crime scene.

After watching several episodes of each it seems clear to me despite the very high quality of the police drivers a high speed pursuit is very dangerous, not just for the officers and the crooks but also us, the general public. It’s also obvious that the danger level can be reduced by the pursuit cars backing off out of sight and allowing a helicopter to take over the tracking of the suspects.

The problem is helicopters are expensive, they’re expensive to buy, expensive to run, and expensive to crew so most counties seem to only have one helicopter available which just isn’t enough. In some areas they’ve started using fixed wing aircraft as well which are relatively cheaper to run, but still expensive.

So I’ve been wondering, having read of the success of the Predator Unmanned Arial Vehicle (UAV) which is used by the US military if there’s an opportunity for a business to design, build and sell a UAV suitable for deployment by the traffic police. Obviously there are going to be a number of issues to resolve regarding safety and flying in civilian airspace but the potential benefits to the police would be considerable. I suspect they could operate several times more UAV’s than helicopters on the same budget.

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