Drones (533A/22)
Request
This request has several parts and relates to UAV’s / drones as below:
PERIOD of DATA/INFORMATION REQUIRED – financial year 2021-2022
PART (1)
(1) *POLICE DEPLOYMENT: Data and information on the deployment of ‘your drones’ over the last 12 months (financial year) (how many planned and spontaneous deployments have there been – include hours if you are able – not necessary)
1.1. Identifying to what type of incidents/events/crime (NOTE: you ‘may’ include the location as applied on a crime map, e.g. according to Neighbourhoods in this force area)
1.2. The outcomes – e.g. person found; offence recorded; person cautioned; person arrested/reported; etc?
1.3. Including, how many operations were flown under a public service exemption?
*PLEASE NOTE: I am not requesting covert data/police use or asking you to confirm or deny use under these circumstances. You do not need to make reference to this or to legal exemption in this respect*
OPTIONAL PARTS (1.4.-1.6.) only IF AVAILABLE and at no/low COST:
1.4. If you are able (this can be excluded from your return): The availability or consideration given to NPAS;
1.5. This can be excluded: And, any identified cost savings for the yearly period?
1.6. This can be excluded: Any arrangements you have for BVLOS operations?
PART (2)
(2) DRONE INCIDENTS/CRIMES REPORTED: The number of drone incidents (potential crimes) reported and recorded by the control room – their classifications/the classification system (H.O. code) used;
2.1. The police response: deployment – how many were responded to? And the grading to incidents/occurrences?
2.2. Plus, if any officer has reported a member of the public under the new amendments to the ANO 2016 (Schedule 9 of the ATM and Unmanned Aircraft Act 2021);
PART (3)
(3) COORDINATION OF DATA: Details of reports that are completed related to the reporting of drone incidents/crimes:
Note – I do not want details on each of these
– sought is the following
3.1. In terms of any templates used/returns; and,
3.2. Where you send information, the requirements/frequency – i.e. to other agencies or forces (i.e. the CAA/H.O. etc) – for collation and oversight purposes.
PART (4)
(4) YOUR FLEET: – UPDATE FROM PREVIOUS FOIs – visible on your site:
And lastly the size of your operations: trained pilots, UAV’s (how many and type)
(i) The insurance costs/arrangements for drones by the force
If you are only able to complete parts of this request, please indicate why this is and any difficulties encountered (accepting (1: 1.1-1.3) and (2) should be readily available: as part of a contact management system). As should (4) and, that someone within the force should be making returns as (3).
We clarified with you on 13/4/2022 and you replied on 13/4/2022:
BVLOS: is beyond the visual line of sight (please note that all UAV users would be aware of this and information recorded would indicate this, as it is a CAA – Civil Aviation Authority requirement).
please do process in its entirety taking account of the request that option information should not impact on the remainder of the request.
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
Although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of the request.
This request has several parts and relates to UAV’s / drones as below:
PERIOD of DATA/INFORMATION REQUIRED – financial year 2021-2022
PART (1)
| DEPLOYMENT | 2020 | 2021 |
| Spontaneous | 1478 | 2049 |
| Pre-planned | 782 | 2105 |
Hours not available in retrievable format.
- Identifying to what type of incidents/events/crime (NOTE: you ‘may’ include the location as applied on a crime map, e.g. according to Neighbourhoods in this force area)
| Deployment | Flights | |
| 2020 | 2021 | |
| Search for offenders | 803 | 1120 |
| Search for missing people | 526 | 753 |
| Thermal requests | 523 | 983 |
| Miscellaneous | 408 | 493 |
| Training flights | – | 805 |
- The outcomes – e.g. person found; offence recorded; person cautioned; person arrested/reported; etc?
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
In order to retrieve this data an individual assessment of each deployment would be required and this would take at least 20 mins per record. This exceeds the 18 hours in relation to the FOI act.
- Including, how many operations were flown under a public service exemption?
36 flights were under the Emergency Service Exemption
*PLEASE NOTE: I am not requesting covert data/police use or asking you to confirm or deny use under these circumstances. You do not need to make reference to this or to legal exemption in this respect*
1.4. If you are able (this can be excluded from your return): The availability or consideration given to NPAS;
No specific data held
- This can be excluded: And, any identified cost savings for the yearly period?
No specific data held
- This can be excluded: Any arrangements you have for BVLOS operations?
NO BVLOS flights
BVLOS: is beyond the visual line of sight (please note that all UAV users would be aware of this and information recorded would indicate this, as it is a CAA – Civil Aviation Authority requirement).
PART (2)
- DRONE INCIDENTS/CRIMES REPORTED: The number of drone incidents (potential crimes) reported and recorded by the control room – their classifications/the classification system (H.O. code) used;
An incident is created as a result of a phone call from member of the public or a self-generated incident by the police for admin purposes.
As a result of an incident a crime will be created if a criminal offence has been identified. Not all incidents result in crimes being created. The two incidents and crimes are on two separate recording systems and as a result data may differ.
Crimes:
18 Crime recorded
| HOMC HOOC (Code) | Total |
| 008/30 | 1 |
| 008/72 | 1 |
| 028/03 | 1 |
| 094/15 | 1 |
| 099/99 | 1 |
| 125/09 | 2 |
| 195/12 | 2 |
| 195/94 | 9 |
| Grand Total | 18 |
Incidents:
Please see (attachment 533A-22 Q2 Incidents)
Also attached is the explanation of our grading system.
2.1. The police response: deployment – how many were responded to? And the grading to incidents/occurrences?
Please note that there were 34 incidents responded to. However, most of the incidents were self-generated by the police or for admin purposes.
Please see (attachment 533A-22 Q2 Incidents)
2.2. Plus, if any officer has reported a member of the public under the new amendments to the ANO 2016 (Schedule 9 of the ATM and Unmanned Aircraft Act 2021);
None
PART (3)
(3) COORDINATION OF DATA: Details of reports that are completed related to the reporting of drone incidents/crimes:
Note – I do not want details on each of these
– sought is the following
3.1. In terms of any templates used/returns; and,
No specific data held
3.2. Where you send information, the requirements/frequency – i.e. to other agencies or forces (i.e. the CAA/H.O. etc) – for collation and oversight purposes.
We work closely with both the CAA and NPCC Counter Drone Team
PART (4)
(4) YOUR FLEET: – UPDATE FROM PREVIOUS FOIs – visible on your site:
2 x M300
1 X M210
9 x Mavic 2
3 x Mavic Mini
And lastly the size of your operations: trained pilots, UAV’s (how many and type)
46 pilots on Force Support Unit
(i) The insurance costs/arrangements for drones by the force
Force comply with CAA insurance requirements.
Please note that we cannot provide financial year costs, we can only provide data for the dates detailed below.
The Force have paid the following:
| Effective Date | Type of event | Premium including Insurance premium tax |
| 2/12/2020 – 31/10/2021 | Inception with Global | £51,910.01 |
| 2/3/2021 – 31/10/2021 | MTA – additional drones | £1,000.53 |
| 1/11/2021- 31/10/2022 | Renewal with Global | £59,625.44 |
Please note that these data should be interpreted with caution. Comparing numbers of incidents/crimes can be misleading and does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime. In addition, the number of incidents/crimes recorded in an area over a period of time can be influenced by a number of factors. Consequently statistics on incidents/crimes for one period may not necessarily be a good indicator of future incidents in that area.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.