The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are investing more in micro-UAVs, in particular little remote-control surveillance helicopter drones, according to the National Post today. The new drones will be the quad rotor AeroVironment Qube model, one of the most popular small drones used by police worldwide.
According to the police themselves, they will limit the use of the drones to “accident reconstruction, search-and-rescue operations, major crime scenes and situations involving emergency response teams”, however as the article also notes, they don’t actually have a formal policy on the use of UAVs, and as with other controversial purchases by Canadian police, for example the LRAD accoustic weapons in Toronto and Vancouver, this highlights how little oversight there is of what technologies police can purchase.
(Thanks to Chris Prince for the story)
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