Sean Mooney, managing director of RSS Security Services, explained that Farmall resident Gavin Venter designed the purpose specific drone which has a triangular formation motor for increased stability.
Mooney said the drone had thermal imaging cameras and could transmit images to a tactical centre. On 22 July the RSS Raid Unit, Farmall residents and the Douglasdale police conducted an operation in Farmall to test the functionality of the drone. Mooney said the operation had to be planned out down to the finest detail because there could be a lot of legal issues relating to the drone.
“We have to get the legalities right when flying the drone in residential areas,” Mooney said. “That’s why we won’t do an operation without the police and will always have a full tactical plan in place.” Mooney envisaged that the drone would help greatly in a raid situation because even if criminals fled the scene they would not be able to hide from the drone’s thermal imaging technology.
Mooney added that the drone could also be used in anti-poaching programmes and proactively to reduce crime. The drone is fully automated, which means that it can fly without being controlled and if it’s battery gets low, it has a fail safe to return to the place it was launched from.
“In my mind this drone will certainly put us at the forefront of the fight against crime,” Mooney said. He said he was also realistic about the debate surrounding the use of technology such as drones to fight crime. “At the moment our biggest challenge is the drone’s flight time, which is 20 to 30 minutes,” Mooney said. “It is also dangerous for this technology to get into the hands of private fliers, drone fliers need to be trained like pilots and have tactical plans in place.”
