Four WA Police officers from Great Southern District are the first regional officers to complete training for the Police Air Wing’s Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS).
Their success has recently been followed by the training of four officers in the South West District.
By the end of June this year, each of the seven regional districts will have four officers trained to be pilots with two district-based drones ready to deploy.
Regional WA Commander, Alan Morton said the Police Air Wing project represented a significant capability enhancement for regional police in respect to local air support arrangements across the State.
“Being able to locally manage the deployment of air support assets to an emergency will provide local police across the State with greater control over their response to emergencies until more traditional air support assets are sourced and deployed,” Commander Morton said.
“While each situation will still need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis to ensure the most appropriate air support type is deployed, this change in operational posture means additional options that were previously many hours away will now be more readily available for deployment from within the districts,” he said.
The Commander stressed that drones will not replace the deployment of traditional Police Air Wing helicopters and planes, or the sourcing of local search aircraft where needed in regional areas.
