The police in Paschim Medinipur have launched the state’s first announcement drone, which will serve as a public address system in addition to surveillance.
Inaugurated during the annual sports competition of Paschim Medinipur District Police on Tuesday, with Superintendent of Police Dhrithiman Sarkar in attendance, the drone is expected to enhance communication between the police and the public.
According to the police, in the new system, drones will be utilised for dual purposes: surveillance and public announcements through the drone’s microphone.
The system will enable authorities to monitor crowds and simultaneously broadcast critical messages to the public. The drones have a flying range of 4km including a flying time and a 4K zoom-in capacity camera.
Earlier, police used handheld microphones to convey information, but with the new system they can transmit messages via Walkie Talkie, which would then be sent to the public through drones. “When there is a big gathering, it can be used to warn people besides handling the law and order situation. In case of natural calamities also we can use these drones to alert people more. We have developed it after doing research at the local level for the last six months. On getting positive results we introduced it,” Superintendent of Police Sarkar said.
According to state police sources soon these drones will be used in different districts of the state.
“On December 24, SP Paschim Medinipur Dhritiman Sarkar, unveiled & inaugurated indigenously built Announcement Drone of Paschim Medinipur District Police. This drone could announce vivid & loud from a height of 250 ft from the ground level with high 130 db sound payload on it, making it clearly aloud of surroundings. Apart from playing pre-recorded sirens/ announcements, it could announce in live manner through HF sets dedicated to this purpose,” the Paschim Medinipur police stated in their press release.
It further mentioned, “This has a range of 4km & flying time for each unit of battery is 30 min. It has been added with a 4K zooming capacity camera into it. This drone is a result of 6 months R&D with a team based in Kharagpur with multiple imports from different countries. This could potentially be used for L&O purposes, controlling large scale human gathering, instructions on direction or dispersing of crowds,
announcement in forecasting of impending natural disaster, relief & rescue operation, early warning etc for giving mass information in a short span of time. It could be used for anti-terror negotiation in case of a hostage-like situation.”
“In India, over 90 decibel sound instruments are not available. To increase sound volume we imported 130db sound payload from Taiwan. We have to wait for customs clearances…,” a senior officer of Paschim Medinipur police said.