Law Enforcement Expands Drone Use in UK, U.S., Philippines

Scotland Yard has launched a Drone as First Responder trial in Islington that will remotely dispatch semi‑autonomous drones from rooftop charging boxes to 999 calls, aiming to arrive in about two minutes and stream high‑definition footage to control rooms and officers. The Met says the drones will provide helicopter‑like aerial support—quicker, quieter, cheaper and greener—and will be used to trace suspects, search for missing people, capture early evidence and inform deployment decisions. Drones will be piloted by trained control‑room operators (with the option for ground pilots to take over), footage can be recorded for evidential use and unused data will be deleted under retention policies; the NPCC‑run pilot is planned to expand to the West End and Hyde Park by year‑end and other UK forces have already rolled out similar programs. In the U.S., local agencies continue drone training (Greenwich) and jurisdictions including San Diego County and Chula Vista have deployed AI‑enabled drone programs that have sped 911 response times, while Miami‑Dade has piloted an autonomous police vehicle with 360‑degree cameras, thermal imaging, license‑plate recognition and drone‑launch capability. The Cordillera region in the Philippines has launched a SQUADRONE unit to institutionalize drone use for surveillance, disaster response and crime prevention, and the rapid expansion of drones in policing is drawing civil liberties and privacy concerns internationally.