Weekly Roundup: Safety Agencies Across the Globe Love Drones

This past week, DRONELIFE reported on the rapid rise in drone use by police in the Middle East. It appears the trend is catching on across the worldwide public-safety community. This week, we turn our UAV eye on Cyprus, and New Zealand.

Cyprus

Police officials in Cyprus hope to deploy several unnamed-model drones over the next two months to bolster patrols, chase suspects and unsnarl congested roadways.

In-Cyprus reports the UAVs will “have the potential to lock on its targets and follow them for up to 30km and for a period of around an hour. Police officers will also have the capability to record during its operations.”

The Mediterranean island nation’s federal police hope the drone deployment will allow them to do more with less.

“Under the current socioeconomic circumstances, policing has become particularly complex, multi-dimensional, and challenging, while budgets and human resources have been cut drastically,” Police Chief Zacharias Chrysostomou said. “It is thus imperative that we can achieve much more with a lot less cost and human resource needs.”

New Zealand

When we think of strange things that fly over New Zealand many of us (especially nerds) think of the flying, black-clad baddies from Lord of the Rings (filmed in New Zealand). However, the national fire service plans to use drones for much less nefarious purposes than conquering Middle-Earth – saving lives.

According to Stuff-NZ, the New Zealand National Fire Service wants to buy 17 drones which would be hauled to various hotpots via special “haz-mat” trucks.  

Since the national fire service routinely responds to blazes, auto accidents and medical emergencies, government officials say the agency is “uniquely positioned to provide drone technology to other government agencies, particularly emergency services.”

Crews in Rangitikei and Canterbury report positive results after unleashing a series of UAVs in a trial

In February, New Zealand’s military police force announced it would eventually replace aging aircraft with drones to support police border patrols. The New Zealand Defence Force’s police arm currently has six P-3K2 Orion aircraft scheduled to be retired over the next decade. Officials say they hope advances in drone technology will allow them to instead deploy drones with longer flight times and range to deter or capture illegal fishing operations.