How a fleet of hi-tech drones are helping Devon police catch organised gangs
IIn the sky, almost a cloud in the sky, a bright, clear week in the middle of the morning.
M5 highway, cars, vans and vans drivers, while creating a fast traffic flow while the surrounding devon rural surrounding the rural, unaware of what is hanging on them.
Not far away, a specially trained, specially trained police officer who has perceived 160FT above sea level on the far edge of the Blackdown hills, is not with the naked eye, but with a high -tech drone of £ 30,000.
PC Carl Thomas, a pilot using a remote control pad that was carried from a large enough to make a game enthusiast jealous, positioned the drone running with four napkins 107 meters above the highway and caught the images of traffic to the north.
The camera is so good that the old firearms officer can read the number plates 2 km away.
PC Tim Brooks, a colleague and pilot, says, üz We are the eye in the sky, ”he says.
The couple is one of the three drone sets in the Devon and Cornwall police, the first power to establish a special unit in the country, and are called to help any kind of incident: to chase police from missing people and even save animals.
Today, however, on the first Wednesday of Autumn, they are working with civil servants on the ground to combat organized crime gangs, which aim to steal equipment, including machinery, tractors and four bicycles.
According to NFU mutual data, Devon and Cornwall are a serious issue in which the united costs of rural crime increased by 60 percent in 2024 to 1.6 million pounds compared to the previous year. Independent.
Force Intelligence shows that some criminals have taken the stolen goods to the ports to send the stolen goods abroad and have carried them to the highways in the open upper animal trucks to prevent their detection with the roadside units.
Some of them are moving towards Eastern Europe, where sanctions from the Ukrainian War created a black market developing on these machines.
“As the drivers move forward, they do not know that we look at the M5 with a bird’s eye view, perhaps we control the tops of high -sided vehicles carrying stolen plant machines, PC says. “When we get something suspicious, the floor units will find the vehicle and attract for more examination.”
Two police officers operate from an unmarked van, each of which is covered with three large screens, each, each of which is different from the drone additional load.
“Is this good?” Since the PC Brooks is positioned to see the drone traffic to the north, the highway asks the police units and live images are shared to see all civil servants.
“Okay, well, let’s go,” the officer answers.
Devon and Cornwall proudly state that they have pioneered the use of drones in policing, which started to use technology in 2015. There is even a special social media page where the drone team shares images of their achievements.
But this is a necessary tool. While faced with the same financial restrictions as other police forces throughout the country, the role of the drone team in policing, especially last year, becomes important than usual 44 million pounds rural criminal farms. in accordance with nfu mutual.
Agricultural vehicle theft, £ 2.7 million, a quadrilateral bicycle and terrain vehicles and £ 1.5 million, including tractors, including 7 million pounds.
And four private civil servants and forces in the rural work team of a sergeant and bosses, the use of drones, stolen goods from the district and even the country, he says.
“Unfortunately, we see that organized crime gangs have come to our power area, and PC Clarke Orchard, the leader of the rural work team near Tiverton during the operation, said,“ They are stealing portable assets such as trailers, four bicycles and even tractors, ”he says.
“Always [the stolen goods] It will be sent to Eastern Europe. We have the unfortunate occupation of Ukraine and with the sanctions imposed there, there is an obvious demand for the machine and I suggest that theft can continue to increase.
“Assets are very expensive. This theft is low, the high award for organized crime gangs that provide this equipment. It is hidden secretly in things like containers.
In Tumbridge, PC Orchard added a police officer from the local council’s commercial standards department and the Environmental Agency for the action of the day called Ragwort operation.
As the morning progresses, 4×4 with a trailer carrying farm animals is taken. While the officers make sure that the trailer is not stolen, the welfare of the sheep is controlled with passports.
And as in any crime operation, unrelated crimes are collected.
A rental van purchased from schools was found to be over 3.5 tons for driving on the highway, under the control of a nearby roadside road edge in A373, in a car without Motor.
When asked if his team won the war against rural crimes, PC Orchard says: orum I want to think that we do our best as we have proven so far. ”
