In 2018 theVancouver Police Division began its program utilizing drones, or remotely piloted aerial techniques (RPAS).
Final 12 months their 20 drones flew 1,826 missions.
One among their drones was vital in capturing homicide suspect Brendan Colin McBride, accused of killing a person in downtown Vancouver in September 2024 and of slicing off one other individual’s hand.
McBride was discovered on Habitat Island. The drone bought there first.
“We had been in a position to get a silent however dwell feed of the island always and we had been in a position to hold visuals for these outdoors of the island to grasp how the arrest was going down,” defined drone pilot Sgt. Dan Cameron.
Each mission requires a pilot and a spotter. Video is streamed again to an operational command centre.
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About 5 per cent of the recordings are preserved, and the VPD says these have to be related to a criminal offense.
To date none of that footage has been utilized in courtroom.
Supt. Don Chapman mentioned the video “typically paints a really correct image of what has transpired.”
“And people will usually not go earlier than a courtroom or earlier than a choose,” he mentioned.
One among their drones was used to assist discover a lacking individual at UBC.
They’ve additionally been deployed close to protests. The VPD says drones present situational consciousness and inform deployment.
However critics have expressed privateness issues.
“Their coverage does say that they’re not alleged to be utilizing them for basic surveillance functions and but we all know there are members of the neighborhood who do fear that they’re getting used for surveillance functions,” mentioned B.C. Civil Liberties Affiliation director Meghan McDermott.
The VPD says it has robust insurance policies regarding privateness and there have been no breaches.
“We’re not all in favour of trying in folks’s home windows or something like that,” Chapman mentioned.
“We reply 700 requires service a day and these pilots are extremely busy.”
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