Lancashire Constabulary's leading the way when it comes to using innovative technology to fight crime.

Officers who work in the Tactical Operations Unit now have access to a pair of drones as well as a fleet of armed response vehicles (ARVs) containing a ground-breaking new weapons storage system.

The drones have been acquired thanks to funding from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for use in a variety of incidents including searches for missing people, football matches, firearms incidents, searches for cannabis farms and at the scene of road traffic accidents.

Two drones operating on a ‘tag team’ basis can provide continuous air support, covering more ground than officers on foot and providing them with a clear, aerial view of a situation. They can also be flown in situations when the police helicopter is unable to deploy, for example during bad weather.

And a weapons storage system for use in ARVs is also in the process of being rolled out across the county.

The new design means weapons on board ARVs will be stored in a specially-designed safe, which will be both secure and easily accessible from the cab of the vehicles, so that officers will not have to stop to get ‘kitted up’ en route to incidents where an armed response is needed.

This could potentially reduce our response time to major incidents by several minutes. It also means officers patrolling a large crowd in an ARV will be able to react much quicker if an incident begins to unfold.

Lancashire is the first force in the country to roll out such a system.

Supt Julian Platt, Operations Manager, said: “Policing has changed a great deal in recent years, both in terms of the types of crime we deal with, and the ways we respond, and some of the processes and technologies that worked perfectly well for us in the past have needed updating to meet current operational requirements.

“We, and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, have invested a huge amount of resources into researching and bringing to reality these new pieces of kit and we hope it shows not only our commitment to innovation but also our commitment to giving our officers on the ground the very best and latest tools to help them as they deal with both daily business and major incidents.

“Our priority is to keep residents safe and feeling safe. From this perspective we have seen the benefit of both the drones and the weapons storage system already.”

He explained that the new weapons storage system was developed after a scoping exercise was conducted in 2016 and ‘best practice’ examples of weapons storage systems were sought from other police forces across the UK. It became apparent that there was no standard ARV safe system nationally, and no ‘off the shelf’ solution that met our brief.

As a result, Ovik Solutions, with the necessary experience and innovation to design and build a safe that would suit its operational needs, got the brief. They took delivery of a BMW X5 vehicle and a prototype was built into it and returned to Lancashire.

"The vehicle was involved in several firearms operations during its trial and real-time feedback was given to Ovik, who then updated the design.

"The new safe is made from a far lighter material than the current storage system, putting less weight on our vehicles, and is flexible enough to accommodate changes to weaponry and equipment in the future. It remains as secure as our old system to protect officers in the event of a collision.

"We now have several vehicles – both marked and unmarked - fitted with the new system, with the rest to be rolled out between now and September."

The drones have been rolled out as a permanent fixture following a three month trial last year, run in collaboration with Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service.

The funding for two high-end specification Aeryon R60 Skyranger drones has come from POCA money, from the Officer of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Supt Platt added: “We are immensely grateful for the money from the OPCC which has enabled us to invest in the drones.

“We are incredibly proud of this technology and hope it sends a message to those living and working in the county that their safety is our priority and we, and the OPCC, are not afraid to invest in equipment which turns those words into actions.”

Clive Grunshaw, Lancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner said: "It is absolutely vital that policing embraces new technologies and thinks differently, staying one step ahead of criminals whilst delivering the best service for the people of Lancashire.

"That is why I am keen to take advantage of any opportunities to drive innovation within the force, where this is cost effective, improves the way the force works and ultimately, helps in our aim to keep the people of Lancashire safe."

Drone case study – high-risk missing person in Lancaster

In November the drone team were called to assist with the search for a missing person in the Lancaster area, who had not been seen for three days.

Local officers had followed up several traditional lines of enquiry and when these had been exhausted they had put in a request for assistance from the police helicopter to help search a large area where the missing man could have been located. Unfortunately the request was declined because of bad weather.

The drone team were called on and they located the missing man using thermal imaging within 20 minutes of arriving on scene.

The man was found in a dense wooded area, which would have been difficult and more time-consuming for officers on foot to have searched.

ARV case study – road rage incident

We were called in April to reports someone had made threats with a handgun in East Lancashire, before fleeing the scene in a car.

A short time later the vehicle activated a speed camera and armed officers who had been deployed following the original incident were able to locate it, and then quickly and the safely draw their weapons whilst on the move to bring it to a stop.

Five people were arrested at the scene.

Had the officers only had access to the old weapon storage system they would have been faced with a choice of attempting to stop the suspect vehicle without weapons, or risk it fleeing while they pulled over to get their weapons out of the boot.

Pictured: of one of the drones in use - and an aerial photo of a house containing a cannabis set-up taken by a thermal imaging camera on a drone - and a photo of the new weapons storage system fitted in one of the ARVs.