Arms manufacturer BAE Systems developing national strategy with consortium of government agencies
[guardian.co.uk] Police
in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially
deployed in Afghanistan, for the "routine" monitoring of antisocial
motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a
significant expansion of covert state surveillance.
The arms manufacturer BAE Systems,
which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war
zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of
government agencies led by Kent police.
Documents from the South
Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police
and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been
obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.
They
reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for
the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the
technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of
their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and
that officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to
private companies. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras
and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this
year.
The Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates UK airspace,
has been told by BAE and Kent police that civilian UAVs would "greatly
extend" the government’s surveillance capacity and "revolutionise
policing". The CAA is currently reluctant to license UAVs in normal
airspace because of the risk of collisions with other aircraft, but
adequate "sense and avoid" systems for drones are only a few years away.
Five
other police forces have signed up to the scheme, which is considered a
pilot preceding the countrywide adoption of the technology for
"surveillance, monitoring and evidence gathering". The partnership’s
stated mission is to introduce drones "into the routine work of the
police, border authorities and other government agencies" across the UK.
Concerned
about the slow pace of progress of licensing issues, Kent police’s
assistant chief constable, Allyn Thomas, wrote to the CAA last March
arguing that military drones would be useful "in the policing of major
events, whether they be protests or the Olympics". He said interest in
their use in the UK had "developed after the terrorist attack in
Mumbai".
Stressing that he was not seeking to interfere with the
regulatory process, Thomas pointed out that there was "rather more
urgency in the work since Mumbai and we have a clear deadline of the
2012 Olympics".
BAE
drones are programmed to take off and land on their own, stay airborne
for up to 15 hours and reach heights of 20,000ft, making them invisible
from the ground.
Far more sophisticated than the
remote-controlled rotor-blade robots that hover 50-metres above the
ground – which police already use – BAE UAVs are programmed to
undertake specific operations. They can, for example, deviate from a
routine flightpath after encountering suspicious activity on the
ground, or undertake numerous reconnaissance tasks simultaneously.
The
surveillance data is fed back to control rooms via monitoring equipment
such as high-definition cameras, radar devices and infrared sensors.
Previously,
Kent police has said the drone scheme was intended for use over the
English Channel to monitor shipping and detect immigrants crossing from
France. However, the documents suggest the maritime focus was, at least
in part, a public relations strategy designed to minimise civil liberty
concerns.
"There is potential for these [maritime] uses to be
projected as a ‚good news‘ story to the public rather than more ‚big
brother‘," a minute from the one of the earliest meetings, in July
2007, states.
Behind closed doors, the scope for UAVs has
expanded significantly. Working with various policing organisations as
well as the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, the Maritime and
Fisheries Agency, HM Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency, BAE
and Kent police have drawn up wider lists of potential uses.
One
document lists "[detecting] theft from cash machines, preventing theft
of tractors and monitoring antisocial driving" as future tasks for
police drones, while another states the aircraft could be used for road
and railway monitoring, search and rescue, event security and covert
urban surveillance.
Under a section entitled "Other routine tasks
(Local Councils) – surveillance", another document states the drones
could be used to combat "fly-posting, fly-tipping, abandoned vehicles,
abnormal loads, waste management".
Senior officers have conceded
there will be "large capital costs" involved in buying the drones, but
argue this will be shared by various government agencies. They also say
unmanned aircraft are no more intrusive than CCTV cameras and far
cheaper to run than helicopters.
Partnership officials have said
the UAVs could raise revenue from private companies. At one strategy
meeting it was proposed the aircraft could undertake commercial work
during spare time to offset some of the running costs.
There are
two models of BAE drone under consideration, neither of which has been
licensed to fly in non-segregated airspace by the CAA. The Herti (High
Endurance Rapid Technology Insertion) is a five-metre long aircraft
that the Ministry of Defence deployed in Afghanistan for tests in 2007
and 2009.
CAA officials are sceptical that any Herti-type drone
manufacturer can develop the technology to make them airworthy for the
UK before 2015 at the earliest. However the South Coast Partnership has
set its sights on another BAE prototype drone, the GA22 airship,
developed by Lindstrand Technologies which would be subject to
different regulations. BAE and Kent police believe the 22-metre long
airship could be certified for civilian use by 2012.
Military drones have been used extensively by the US to assist reconnaissance and airstrikes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But their use in war zones has been blamed for high civilian death tolls.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/cctv-sky-police-plan-drones
