The success of police drones in spotting cannabis factories and finding missing people in Norfolk means the county's police and crime commissioner is keen to be allowed to use them in more situations.
Norfolk's recently-elected new police and crime commissioner is hoping aviation rules will be changed so drones can be used more widely.
Giles Orpen-Smellie told a meeting of Norfolk Police and Crime Panel on Tuesday, July 13, how he hoped police forces might be permitted to operate drones beyond the current 'line of sight' regulations.
At the moment, under civil aviation authority rules, the police's drone operators must be able to see the machine they are controlling.
But Mr Orpen-Smellie said the military is able to operate drones beyond the line of sight and there could be benefits if police were able to do likewise.
He said: "The key change in our drone capability would be a beyond line of sight flying permission.
"The drones have the reach, they have the endurance. There are drones on the market now you can put up for eight hours.
"In the context of, for example, hare coursing, we could put a drone up somewhere over the west of the county and just sit up there all night looking for things, if we wanted to, but we're not allowed under civil aviation rules to fly out of line of sight."
Conservative Mr Orpen-Smellie said it was on the agenda to seek such permission.
Mr Orpen-Smellie said, in an ideal world, he would divert money the force currently pays for the use of the National Police Air Service's helicopter, to spend on drones, were that service to be stopped.
That service is currently governed by West Yorkshire police, but that force has served notice - so its future is unclear.
Temporary chief constable Paul Sanford said drones were now a more reliable tool than that helicopter, which he said had only been called up twice in the past two months.
He said drones were significantly cheaper and had enhanced flying time.
He said: "They particularly come into their own for two purposes.
"One is for intelligence gathering ahead of police enforcement activity around criminal acts - typically cannabis farms, where their heat-seeking technology is incredibly useful.
"And, arguably, most importantly, in the search for missing persons.
"It's always difficult to put a figure on the number of persons found, because a drone is just part of the search operation.
"What I would say is that I know of several cases where I believe persons have been found, where otherwise, they wouldn't - because of that technology."
He said it was an area where he wanted to see further investment, with Mr Orpen-Smellie's support.
Norfolk police currently has 22 fully trained drone operators and 20 drones, although eight of those are only used for training.
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