Drones 'transforming policing' in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire Police chief drone pilot Kev Taylor

High-tech drones are transforming policing in Lincolnshire, it has been claimed.

Lincolnshire Police has a team of 15 drone pilots who have helped save lives and catch criminals on the run across the rural county.

The force has had drones since 2017, and chief pilot Kev Taylor says they are getting more advanced all the time.

Drones are a cheaper and more efficient way of doing jobs police once used helicopters for.

Mr Taylor said: "Helicopters have been doing it for years, and we've always had that ability for a helicopter to have a look at a property and say 'there's something very unusual going on there'.

"But they are an expensive resource and if we can do it cheaper and more efficiently then that's what we should do."

He told BBC Radio Lincolnshire the force's drones had been used 400 times in the past year, helping to find missing people lost in the Lincolnshire countryside, and tracking down suspects fleeing the police.

Each of the drones measures about half a metre across and carries four powerful cameras.

Lincolnshire Police have 15 drone pilots

In one case, a drone pilot helped to find a 75-year-old woman with dementia who was lost in a field.

Using thermal imaging technology the pilot tracked the woman as she struggled across the field, fell and got back up again, and made her way into another field. The pilot guided officers on the ground to find the woman, who was then brought to safety.

In another case, a drone tracked a 38-year-old man running from police and even followed him as he swam across a river before the pilot guided officers in to arrest him.

During this summer's heatwaves the drones helped track down illegal water extraction, and they have also been used to investigate increasing numbers of arson attacks by capturing aerial views of fires and assessing damage.

Now the drone team's Twitter account @LincsCOPter has been named 'Best Social Media Account' at the World's Emergency Drone Conference, hosted in Paris by the International Emergency Drone Organization.