Drones to increase security in Sant Cugat del Vallès

New technologies reach city councils. The ingenuity to increase safety on the streets continues to grow and police forces are increasingly relying on gadgets and applications to optimize their work, such as drones.

Video surveillance cameras, mobile APPs, robots, drones … These are some of the tools that municipalities such as Sant Cugat del Vallès are using, where AQ Acentor offers an exclusive residential complex of 39 homes, to offer their neighbors a safe and quiet environment to his family.

One of the technologies that stands out the most in recent years and draws special attention in these tasks are drones, small unmanned flying devices that can be controlled remotely. It sounds like the plot of a fictional movie, but it is happening: drones are positioning themselves as a key piece in surveillance and security tasks. Especially today, drones can make film productions like the ones they did on droneify.se.

How can a drone make the streets safer?

To find out how they can be used as support in this endeavor and all that they can contribute, at AQ Acentor we have spoken with Arthur Holland Michel, one of the world’s leading experts in these aerial vehicles.

Arthur is co-director of the Drone Center at Bard College, one of New York’s most prestigious think tanks on the subject. Additionally, he is the author of the book Eyes in the Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It Will Watch Us All.

“Drones generally carry infrared cameras and / or sensors that make up an eye in the sky over a certain area, so they are a very useful tool for surveillance and tracking suspects,” explains Arthur. For this reason, city councils of municipalities such as Sant Cugat del Vallès will have a drone with a thermal camera flying over their streets in the coming weeks in order to avoid crime. “In addition, they are very effective in finding missing people and planning complex missions, such as hostage situations,” he adds.

The benefit of these devices is very clear: it increases visibility with an aerial surveillance angle that is broadcast live. In this way, those responsible have more eyes and the police response increases its immediacy. In addition, their slight wingspan means that they can go where people have limited access.

“Its technology could also be used to access a building in which a difficult situation is occurring and provide police officers outside a view of the interior so they can see what is happening and act with less risk,” says the expert. . “However, currently its most common uses are the deactivation of explosives and missions with hazardous materials,” he points out.

Uses of drones that you did not imagine

Search and rescue is the most obvious use according to the co-director of the Drone Center. “Especially when equipped with infrared sensors, drones are very effective at finding missing people, at night and in remote areas,” he adds. As curious uses, Arthur says that a lot of effort has gone into developing drones to deliver defibrillators to heart attack victims and also for other urgent medical shipments.

“Some companies have developed tear gas drones to control riot, but that is a dangerous and mostly very unpopular idea,” he warns.

The future of using drones to ensure safety

The challenges that drones face to continue developing in this role are, on the one hand, increasing flight time, since currently “most of them can only fly for about 20 minutes, so although the drone can be programmed to track GPS waypoints, your patrol is still very short lived. And on the other, Arthur adds, “to have sufficiently advanced technology to be able to detect crimes autonomously”.