Drones deployed to catch illegal off-roaders

Saturday, 2 March 2019 07:00

Rogue riders in Wakefield have been warned they could soon be caught out by a police eye in the sky after officer’s deployed drones to detect illegal off road bikers.

Wakefield District bike cops deployed drones in a test operation at Horbury Lagoon last week, in what was the first such use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology to support off road bike policing in West Yorkshire.

Officers from West Yorkshire Police’s UAV Operations team piloted a drone over the lagoon on the day to provide bird’s eye support for patrolling officers from the District’s Matrix off road team.

Tests showed that the drone was able to give a crystal clear picture of the whole lagoon area, providing the drone operator with real time intelligence which could be used to direct police off road riders on the ground.

More drone flights in other ‘hotspot’ areas for anti-social riding in Wakefield District are now planned in the coming weeks.

The Matrix team itself is now operating seven days a week after its expansion in late 2018 and is busier than it has ever been.

In the last week alone the team seized an off road bike seen being used illegally in Upton, arrested a man in Airedale for dangerous riding on a stolen motorbike and secured a £200 fine in court for a male seen riding illegally.

During 2018 the team seized 96 off road bikes and either charged or reported 43 people for summons.

PC Finley of the Operation Matrix Team, said: “The use of drones will really assist us on operations and we want to thank our colleagues from UAV Operations for their help in making this project a reality.

“In tests on Horbury Lagoon, a drone covering the southern area was able to give the operator a perfect view of the whole lagoon itself due to its height and camera kit, illustrating their effectiveness.

“If any illegal riders had been present and operating out of view of our Matrix team, the drone pilot would have spotted them and been able to guide us straight to where the problem was.”

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