Drone police have confirmed plans are in place if a lion escapes a zoo in the UK but resources won't be spent looking for mysterious big cat sightings in the wilderness.
Inspector Guy Summers who leads a joint drone operation for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary and Thames Valley Police, told and showed the Daily Star what their kit can do.
According to Insp. Summers, the police's current use of remote controlled helicopter-like devices is still in its infancy compared to what big plans they have for them.
READ MORE: UK to be policed by drones launched from boxes on top of buildings for 'every incident'
Drones are not just flying cameras, but flying speakerphones too with potential for police to communicate an urgent message across a scene they're unable to physically reach.
Few warnings are quite so terrifying as a dangerous predator is on the rampage.
Insp. Summers said: "It could be something so simple such as a zoo, a lion's escaped you know not only our colleagues might put the comms out, we might fly a drone saying 'get back to your house', that's an example.
"A bit extreme but we do have plans with our zoos in case theseanimalsescape because they are potentially dangerous."
It may be an extreme scenario, but it's one Inps. Summers says his team is prepared for.
He continued: "We've been to different zoos, we've worked with them because the public needs to be protected. So that might include firearms officers being deployed to support that so we would have that as part of our plan."
What officers aren't about to do, Insp. Summers laughed, is respond to a big cat sighting in the countryside.
Panthers have been rumoured to live in the UK's limited wilderness for decades, capturing the imaginations of enthusiasts yet no one has so far claimed to have been attacked by one.
As such, Insp. Summers is not too keen on the idea of launching a drone out to catch one of these elusive big cats.
He insisted: "It's not the police's job to go and find big cats. That's not our area, if there's a threat to the public we'll be there.
"If there's a threat to the public, when there's a threat to victims and the public, that's when we'll be in the thick of it."
There are some other emergency reports, where soaring a camera overhead just isn't viable โ like an incident by a secretive nuke testing site, for example.
Insp. Summers said: "We will write three to five plans for incidents that may happen at certain locations that would involve a response.
"That response may be air support, now I use air support because that may be drone or police helicopter. It might be both it might be none of them because it's flying into a sensitive area.
"It's case dependent, we've got Aldermaston down the road you know you've got the country's nuclear testing for missiles taking place, we wouldn't want to fly over there at all because it's sensitive and all the information."
For more incredible stories from the Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here
Source: Read Full Article