India’s first ‘Police Drone Unit’ launched in Chennai

The Greater Chennai City Police (GCP) on Thursday, June 29, 2023 launched a new ‘Police Drone Unit’ for aerial surveillance over vast areas and quick detection of criminal activities.

The Greater Chennai City Police (GCP) on Thursday, June 29, 2023 launched ‘Police Drone Unit’ for aerial surveillance over vast areas and quick detection of criminal activities.

Director General of Police (DGP) and Head of Police Force C. Sylendra Babu inaugurated the newly-created special unit at Besant Avenue, Adyar. The unit has been established at a two-storey building and functions with over 20 trained police personnel. At present, the drones are operated around Marina and Elliots beaches.

Mr. Babu said, “It is an important milestone for the Tamil Nadu Police. This project is the first-of-its-kind in the country. The unit was established at the cost of ₹3.6 crore.”

In this Drone Police Unit, a total of nine drones under three categories namely — Quick Response Surveillance Drones; Heavy Lift multirotor Drone and Long Range Survey wing plane — are available and are equipped with built-in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and can be operated up to a distance of 5-10 kilometres from the ground station.

Chennai Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal told The Hindu, “It is a manforce multiplier. For instance, if we want to patrol over Marina beach or Elliot’s beach at 10 p.m., we have to send men with lights. On seeing the lights, the criminals may hide. The drones have no such hassles. Since the drone has a thermal object imaging facility, it will show if any suspect has a knife or some other objects in his body. We can also see the profile of the suspicious person. Based on information from the drones, we can send our men and take quick action.”

“The drones will be used to monitor movements at isolated places and congregation of anti-social elements at specific times. In the night hours, the drones can be used to read the number plates of vehicles. Also, we can easily identify and trace the criminals in the crowd since facial recognition software is attached. Besides, the drones would be helpful in planning crowd control,” he said.

“The Heavy Lift Drone equipped with thermal cameras can detect and rescue people caught in the sea waves by deploying life jackets even during the night. We have selected 20 police personnel and trained them to operate these three types of drones. The vendor will support our personnel for another year,” said M.R. Sibi Chakravarthi, Joint Commissioner of Police, South.