Drones, licence plate recognition, part of Vancouver police’s new tech

Vancouver police debuted new technology on Wednesday to help keep the city and its residents safe.

As part of a Drone as First Responder Program, the Vancouver police will be the first in Canada to deploy six Skydio X10 drones, which have already been in testing for weeks and have been approved by Transport Canada.

The drones will be able to link with Vancouver’s body-worn cameras as well.

“For example, if an officer is in trouble, perhaps being assaulted, they can tap their camera three times, which will automatically deploy a Skydio drone to their exact location at the direction of the pilot in command,” Insp. Wade Rodrigue, with the VPD’s Force Options Training Section, said in a statement.

“Pilots can also fly the drones to a crime in progress, arrive first, and send their video feeds to responding officers on the ground as well as the Operations Command Center (OCC). That gives us better intel on what’s happening and can help responding officers to pursue suspects who may try and evade them.”

The Skydio drones will be stationed on rooftops throughout Vancouver and will only record video when the function is activated by a pilot.

Officers’ body-worn cameras can now translate more than 50 languages in real time with Axon Assistant and respond to someone in their language.

“When you consider how multicultural Vancouver is, this translation ability is a game-changer,” said Sgt. Dermot O’Boyle in a statement.

The footage from body-worn cameras can also be livestreamed back to the Vancouver police’s Operations Command Centre so additional resources can be dispatched if needed.

Aside from these improvements, 73 Vancouver police cruisers are getting automated licence plate recognition cameras, which will help spot vehicles of interest faster and holsters for conducted energy weapons and service weapons will automatically activate body-worn cameras when drawn, capturing critical moments right away.

“Combined, these technologies create a system that helps improve decision-making, response times, and overall public safety in Vancouver,” Kevin Bernardin, Supt. of Innovation and Technology at the VPD, said in a statement.