Met Police considering drones for chases

[Undinist]

Says the Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/police-could-use-drones-to-chase-moped-riders-a3287106.html

[stevo as b4]

Serious question, but whatever happened to the whole idea if tazering or firing a little electrical frying dart at stolen bikes and cars? I know I've watched too much fast and furious, but surely this technology must exist now to disable vehicles that won't stop?

[Undinist]

That wouldn't reduce the death rate of scrotes on scooters. The point of drones is for the police to follow at a distance, instead of getting close to the scrote and encouraging him to go faster and top himself.

[Ste]

You wouldn't need line of sight, Reaper drones blowing shit up in Iraq / Syria are controlled by people at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.

In theory you can stop a car by fucking with its electrics using a EMP style device. I expect we'll see that before we see Gods Eye.

[pepperami]

[Undinist]

IIRC the CAA rules say you must have line of sight to fly a drone in the UK. And you're not allowed to fly over a road, etc etc. So I suppose Plod would need lots of exemptions from the rules. Airline pilots will be wanting Plod to be extra super careful. So the Police drone operators will need a proper pilot's licence, and mil-spec drones with triple redundancy everything. This project will need years of committee meetings and trials and massive expenditure. By the time it's ready Plod will have remote control of all our vehicles via state-mandated black boxes. Every time you break a traffic law your engine will switch off and the handlebar grips and seat covering will melt, gluing you to your steed.

[Alpineandy]

What speeds can those type of drones get up to?

I know they look like they move quick when you see one whizz by but looks can be deceptive.
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The above comment isn't necessarily the truth and anyone that says it is, is only correct if it's the truth or they're bigger than me.

[thx1138]

If it was anything like this, I'd join the police to fly the drone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1MPD3tdKec

[RhynoCZ]

[RhynoCZ]

[Ste]

"What speeds can those type of drones get up to?"

"an average drone can stay in the air for no longer than 20 minutes or so"

Well a Reaper drone has a top speed of about 300mph and can be airborne for 3 days. (Obviously not 3 days at 300mph. )

Plod aren't going to be using joe public average drone which is an Parrot AR2 and they're not (yet) going to be using Reaper drones.

[RhynoCZ]

A Reaper drone? Well, the £350m a week, you won't be sending to the EU anymore, will sure come handy to keep the good times roll.
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[staffo]

[Rogerborg]

[MCN]

[G]

[Alpineandy]

Maybe I'm wrong but I'd guess they'll want to use a drone that can hover rather than one that can be outfoxed by stopping and letting it fly by. So I'll ask the same question slightly differently.

How fast do those 'hover' type drones go then?
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The above comment isn't necessarily the truth and anyone that says it is, is only correct if it's the truth or they're bigger than me.

[Nexus Icon]

[G]

Getting on for 100mph for a fast quad copter.

Getting on for twice that for a fast helicopter.

Note that thanks to the high power to weight ratio, better aerobatic RC planes can usually hover like a helicopter by just going vertical.

Quadcopters are popular because they are very cheap to make. Once you've got 4 motors, you don't need any more moving parts - you just control the speed of each motor separately.

This may not be best, most agile or fastest setup - but it's the easiest to make, control and upgrade.

You have to have electric motors for this sort of setup for the fine control of each motor seperately.

However, ICE based designs can go on for a lot longer.

I would have thought that for chasing bikes a plane might be better - it can always circle if needed - and in pretty small arcs.
It can also be reasonably quiet and generally uess a lot less power per distance covered.

[stevo as b4]

Wayy off topic, but I suppose you mean electric motor powered planes can be quiet?

There ain't nothing quiet about the slightly crap fake jet system of a ducted fan two stroke engine with tuned pipe for 18000rpm.

Real miniature jet motors are hardly quiet either, and anything prop driven well forget it.

I don't know of any commercial or MOD drones that use ICE's as I spose a drones biggest advantage apart from maneuverability is stealth.

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

The police do like their gadgets, don't they! The more "military" the better.

[G]

Some of the planes set up for first person view have foldable props that you can stop (at which point they automatically fold back), so it becomes a glider. So could reasonably get it high and glide into an area in a case where you were trying to be less obtrusive.


If you go for a big lower RPM prop I believe it can be fairly quiet.

A friend who's into 'normal' FPV stuff has found severe restrictions on ICE planes at the field he flies at due to noise - but for the most part electric do ok.

[Joncrete Cungle]

So how would plods drone cope with a bunch of moped riding criminal hoodlums who all split up in different directions? Or if they rode in to a multi story car park etc?

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

Even if the drone had POV (point of view) capability would it have sufficient control range, particularly in amongst tall buildings?

[Alpineandy]