Tamil Nadu issues GO to establish Drone Police Unit in Chennai

The drone police unit will have three types of drones such as quick response special payload drone, long range surveillance drone and lifeguard drone. The quick response drone will have multi-rotor drone capable of interchangeable payloads, HD camera with thermal and night vision and live video recording, loudspeaker (100 gms) for public announcement, 2 kms continuous flying range, 30 mins continuous flight time with a gross weight of 2.5 kgs.

The long range surveillance drone is a hybrid drone (quadcopter and wing plane) to make vertical takeoff and landing. It will have 100 mins of continuous flight time, 30 kms continuous flying range with a gross weight of 5 kg. The lifeguard drone is high powered and is capable of heavy lifting with 15 mins of continuous flight time, one km flying range with a gross weight of 12 kgs.

Apart from the above mentioned features, an optical zoom camera with automatic number plate reader (ANPR), automatic deployment of police personnel, artificial intelligence (AI) implemented in the ground station and a dedicated ground station unit for each drone would also be integrated.

The drone police unit will have two components- one the drones and second a well furnished container office with high rise platform with drone take off and landing pad with all side glass walls and automatic roof, control units, monitors, power backups, furniture, landscaping systems, high end servers, connectivity and so on. The office will likely be a temporary structure fabricated using container cabins with ground floor to be used as control room and upper deck for drone operation.

A total of nine drones, six quick response drones, two long range surveillance drones and one lifeguard drone will be purchased at the total cost of Rs 3 crore and the remaining 60 lakh would be spent on the office. Police have suggested to the state govt that the drones might be initially placed at Marina beach adjacent to Gandhi statue or Elliots beach or Pondy bazaar.

The announcement to establish a drone police unit for Chennai police was announced by Chief Minister M K Stalin in the state Assembly at vantage points in the city to aid and assist the field police officers in reducing the response time to distress calls, to conduct surveillance of VIP routes and crime prone areas, to rescue people stranded in beach areas and in high rise buildings during the time of fire.