Drones used by Karnataka police to control crime

May 18, 2016 Innovation Valli Sarvani No comments

Now the Karnataka police department will be using a UAV fleet after the procurement of 12 drones last month. The police department has trained about 20 policemen have to operate these drones. The UAVs which are being used have many capabilities like night vision.

The drones already helped the cops detect sand mining along the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border. They are being used to find more such activities.

In the past, drones were only used by the Bengaluru police to monitor crowd during major events like Dasara and during New Year celebrations.

This is the first time an initiative has been taken by the police department to buy drones and use them. Each of these UAV drones cost around Rs 1.5 lakh.

The police department has procured these Phantom 4 UAVs from South Korea. They are made to remain in the air for over 30 minutes. The drones can reach heights of up to1 km. Each of the UAVs have a high definition 18.2 megapixel camera. The cameras have night vision capabilities too.

These drones are helpful for the cops to see relayed images from as far as 5 km. The only drawback of these drones is that they cannot be properly operated during heavy rain. The Karnataka police department is already using these drones for many monitoring purposes. They were able to carefully monitor on illegal activities like sand mining, VVIP events, and even crimes like chain snatching.

So far, the department has purchased 12 drones. These drones will distributed among the districts of Koppal, Yadgir, Ballari, Bidar, Raichur and Kalaburagi.

As the drones cost around Rs. 1.5 lakh each, it might take time to buy more drones. The success of this initiative can inspire other states to use drones for monitoring purposes too. The use of technology certainly gives cops an advantage in various situations.