Drones deployed to help Met Police's 999 response

Islington is the first Metropolitan Police area to get a drone

The Metropolitan Police is using remotely launched drones to support its response to emergencies.

A trial now under way in Islington involves drones feeding intelligence both to officers in a control room and on the ground, the force said.

Civil liberty campaigners like Big Brother Watch have previously described the use of drones by police as "sinister", however Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, the national lead for drones, said: "This isn't surveillance. This is to support policing operations on the ground."

He added that any footage not needed for use in evidence would be deleted after 28 days. The Met aims to roll the project out to the West End and Hyde Park by the end of the year.

Tracing suspects

The force told the BBC that the new drones were quicker, quieter, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than police helicopters, while delivering the same operational results.

Drones will be launched only as a response to a 999 call, the Met added, and will be piloted by trained operators remotely from the force control room.

The Met said drones would arrive on the scene within two minutes and from there would stream footage to assist officers.

The drones will be used for "a variety of incidents, including searching for missing people, tracing a suspect, or arriving quicker to capture evidence at the scene of an incident".

Mr Taylor said the Our Drone as First Responder programme "will assist in tracing suspects, locating missing people and delivering intelligence to our officers as they respond to Londoners when they need us most".

He added: "We are building a Met that is more precise and efficient than ever before, and this new technology gives us a vital new tool to tackle crime in the capital."

Officers in the Met Police's control room will make any decision to deploy a drone

The Met Police's drones are housed in boxes on the roofs of selected force buildings, where they sit charging and waiting for the call to launch.

Footage captured by the drones once they are called into action is transmitted in real time to the control room or to a mobile user.

At the end of the deployment the drone returns to its landing area, where its weather-proof box will close so the drone can be charged in preparation for its next mission.