Police eye high-tech helicopter camera in the sky

Gloucestershire Constabulary are using high-speed communications technology to beam live video footage of major incidents and car chases from the force helicopter to inspectors in the emergency control room.

The 'Heli-tele' project allows footage from a camera onboard the helicopter to be transmitted in real-time to computer screens at Gloucestershire's Waterwells control room via a microwave antenna on top of Edge Hill in the Forest of Dean.

Previously inspectors and officers in the control room on the ground had to rely on audio commentary on an incident from an air observer police constable in the helicopter in order to help them make decisions on where to deploy officers at a major incident or whether a car pursuit should be aborted for safety reasons.

Richard Smith, inspector at Gloucestershire Constabulary, told silicon.com: "It is particularly useful in monitoring 'decamp' when suspects leave a car that has been in pursuit and the biggest impact will be on vehicle pursuits. We don't want police or the driver injured and if I at the control room delay 10 seconds longer [on a decision] I hit the lady with the pushchair."

Night and heat-intensifying imaging also help the control room inspectors manage a chase or a search better at night-time by being able to follow a suspect in real-time on the screen and direct officers on the ground to where they are hiding.

"It saves us a massive amount of time," he said.

The force has shared the police helicopter with Avon and Somerset Constabulary for some time but the 'Heli-tele' service was enabled by a new high-speed converged IP network.

The video camera sits at the front under the helicopter.

Using browser technology the live footage can be viewed by inspectors or senior officers at any PC on the force's IP network using an authorised login. This allows for better remote management of incidents not only in the control room but by officers who may be in a remote police station.

During the three months Heli-tele has been operational Smith said it had helped the force make 42 arrests, 19 assisted arrests, 48 pursuits and 328 searches.

The 155MB IP network was built by Affiniti - formerly Kingston Communications - replacing a 2MB BT Megastream network from 1993 that Gloucestershire Constabulary IT services manager Dave Kent admitted was "creaking".

Heli-tele cost £26,000 to implement with £12,000 per year running costs but Kent said it was not just about efficiency and money.

"The operational benefits are incalculable when you are talking about human lives," he said.