DRONES IN THE SAFETY DOMAIN
Using drones for security and emergency purposes has been in the spotlight in recent years. Lack of regulation and control prevented emergency services from using drones in practice. But the tide has turned: clear regulations and preconditions and proper training for drone pilots give fire brigades, police forces and other security professionals room to use drones to support their operational processes.
NATIONAL DRONE NETWORK
The fire brigade has been at the forefront of efforts to achieve more room for operational use of drones. And with success, in the form of a branch guideline and professional training. Four fire brigades now have a drone team and various other fire brigades are interested in setting one up. The ultimate goal is to set up a drone network with national coverage, so that a drone can be deployed anywhere in the Netherlands within an hour to support emergency services.
DRONES IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS
The police have their own areas of application and can use drones to gain an overview of major risk events, disturbances and to support arrest teams, for example. But the fire brigade and police are not the only ones using drones, the Department of Public Works (Rijkswaterstaat) is also experimenting with drones as an information instrument for road inspectors.
And how long will it be before the first drone with an AED takes air independently to support a civilian rescue team?
It is expected that in a few years' time it will be impossible to imagine life without drones in incident response and crisis management and in other safety tasks, such as monitoring and securing events and risk locations. Safety organisations can cooperate and, for example, jointly organise training and education or acquire and manage a drone fleet on a multidisciplinary basis. These are great themes for getting to know each other and exchanging knowledge during eRIC 2022.
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Read more about drones:
Incident Management op de weg en op het water: verbinding van thema’s // Koninklijke Luchtmacht richt focus op vliegveiligheid rond dronegebruik in OOV-sector // Onbemand snuffelen en speuren krijgt nieuwe dimensie // Multidisciplinaire demonstratie als ‘Tetrispuzzel’