Drone as First Responder trials underway in Norwich

• Simulated demonstration shows how Drone as First Responder would work in practice
• Trials to continue through 2024-2025

Norfolk Constabulary has one of the UK’s most effective police drone units and was chosen by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to lead a trial of Drone as First Responder (DFR) that will see drones remotely deployed to be first on the scene of police incidents.

Collaborating with the University of East Anglia at their Norwich campus for one of the first demonstrations of DFR technology, Norfolk Constabulary’s Drones Team show how an emergency call about a ‘missing person’ could be tasked to a drone stationed in a weatherproof box on a roof nearby.  The drone is launched and piloted remotely to assist in the search, providing real-time footage to the control room, supporting the Force Incident Manager in not only providing a fast response but also informing what additional resource could be needed.

The imagery is then available for subsequent investigation or prosecution and the drone initially deployed can team with neighbouring DFR drones to effect handovers when battery levels mean the on-scene drone needs to return to base. At the end of the task, they will return to their boxes and re-charge to prepare for the next deployment. 

Superintendent Taryn Evans is strategic lead for the National Police Chiefs’ Council Drones team. She said:

“The Norfolk trial is an important showcase of just how effective DFR can be at supporting our response to 999 calls, arriving on scene quickly and giving invaluable ‘eyes in the sky’.

“Each trial enables us to test how DFR could work in different environments and support different operational purposes, enhancing both public and officer safety.”

Norfolk Constabulary Superintendent Phill Gray said:

“We’re pleased to collaborate with the NPCC, Home Office and UEA in testing and developing new technology which enhances the service we provide to our local communities and improves public safety.”

Prof Gerard Parr, Chair in Telecommunications Engineering at UEA’s School of Computing Sciences, said:

“It’s great to be able to further develop our partnership on innovative technology initiatives with Norfolk Constabulary. We are delighted to utilise our facilities to support police colleagues with this demonstration, which showcases the latest in police drone technology.

“The large size of the university’s 360-acre estate means we are occasionally called upon to assist emergency services in searches for missing people, and anything that can aid these searches is really positive. I want to thank our UEA Estates team for facilitating our police colleagues in this initiative.

“We hope to develop our collaborations further with Norfolk Police to provide employment opportunities for our Computing Science graduates and also explore joint research projects.”

DFR promises to transform the response to 999 calls. By getting to the scene of any incident in an urban or rural fringe environment within minutes and providing a bird’s eye view directly into a force’s incident room, the emergency response can be much better tailored. Not only will this support in delivering a faster and more efficient emergency response but the real-time view it provides will enhance both public and officer safety.

Drones can be used effectively alongside traditional air support to provide a blended response which is fast and can reduce environmental impact.

The Norfolk trial is part of four DFR trials across the country, the first led by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary and Thames Valley Police at the Isle of Wight Festival where a simulated DFR capability was deployed alongside the force’s routine police drones resource. This will be replicated in further trials at a range of events throughout the summer.

An additional trial is also in planning with West Midlands Police later in 2024.

DFR is part of a larger NPCC Drones programme, which is establishing robust governance, standardisation and sharing of expertise across the UK’s wide network of police drone operators. The work to date has focused on improvements to the way the 400 drones already flown by UK police officers are operated within visual line of sight (VLOS). This aims to increase confidence in police drone operations by the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, which should in turn facilitate an easier transition to beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and DFR operations in the future.