EXCLUSIVE: Greater Manchester's drones that are fighting crime and saving lives

A year ago police chiefs at Greater Manchester Police set out to launch a pilot scheme to send drones up into our skies to help put criminals behind bars and send lives.

Hits Radio has now been given exclusive insight into the latest hi-tech crime fighting operation.

Since the pilot scheme launched at the end of 2018, the airborne devices have been deployed more than 800 times to help boost officers efforts on the ground.

They're helping deal with a range of incidents, including fighting anti-social behavior on the streets of Greater Manchester, tracking missing people, locating cannabis farms and keeping a wide-eye on huge crowds at some of our region's biggest events.

'Eye in the sky'

Police officer numbers within GMP have fallen by around 2,000 in the last decade.

Superintendent Chris Hill, who oversees the drones unit for the force, believes the use of new technology is vital in boosting resources they'e lost and allowing officers to continue to protect the public.

"The scope of utilising the drone is absolutely amazing. Any tool to support our communities and bring offenders to justice, we're not going to say no."

"Personally, I know I've saved lives through using the drones."

"There is this real appetite to use the drone technology. We are fully trained with pilot licenses."

Those behind it hope the drones will help future proof the force for years to come, with the equipment allowing teams to cover ground in a matter of minutes and saving vital time and resource.

Superintendent Hill tells us it's an important boost to what they do.

"It's just an exciting opportunity...I think it's the way forward."

"We've brought a lot of offenders to task. It's an eye in the sky to take the fight to the criminals, to ensure communities are safe.

"When somebody needs us at their very, very worst moment in their time we've got another asset there - and that's where I see the drone being utilised and has been for the last few months."

Drone helps find missing person

Police chiefs are already seeing the benefits of having the extra resources in the air.

Last month, GMP received a call from a member of the public to reports of a man acting suspiciously in Rochdale.

The drone unit were sent in to investigate the matter further.

Pilots viewing the video footage from the drone were able to give live-commentary to the ground based officers to point them in the direction of the man’s exact location and monitor him while they arrived on scene.

He was hidden, and it was the help of the live feed that helped find the man and reunite him with his family.

PC John Williams is GMP’s Flight Safety Officer and Chief Drone Pilot and at the time of the incident was coordinating and updating the pilots who were at the scene. He said: “This was a great effort from everyone involved and special thanks must go to my whole team within the drone unit who were able to provide officers with the specialist equipment needed to resolve the situation quickly.

“Due to the size of the area we needed to search, it would have taken officers many hours on foot, but the drone was able to complete this search within a short period of time.

“This incident could have ended in tragedy, but thankfully was quickly and safely resolved.

The pilot scheme currently has no end date.