RCMP testing ‘game-changing’ drones in rural Alberta

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There’s space in the RCMP’s Cochrane detachment that could be easily mistaken for a video game room. A PlayStation controller even sits under one of the screens.

It wouldn’t be a far-off guess — if the machinery being controlled from that room wasn’t heading out to traverse the skies above Stoney Nakoda First Nation. From that room, which otherwise looks like a place officers take their coffee break, police are testing new drone technology that may soon help active crime scenes and other emergencies from a bird’s-eye view.

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Alberta RCMP have been testing drone technology since early June in areas across Alberta, with hopes of deploying the technology across Canada in the coming years — a product of inquiries into some of the country’s worst mass shootings.

“I’m going to call it game-changing technology, where with just a little innovation and technology, we can effectively have a helicopter in almost all of our communities,” said Kevin Kunetzki, deputy criminal operations officer for the K division of the Alberta RCMP

The technology has been used for about 10 years, according to RCMP. But the drones are most often deployed at crime scenes from patrol car trunks. Alberta RCMP is still collecting information on the drones and working out how they can be useful.

At a demonstration in Cochrane on Friday, a group of RCMP officers 300 kilometres north in Edmonton sat in a control room, hitting buttons on a keypad to navigate the drone toward a mock missing-person scene at an abandoned house. After returning the drone to its pad atop a water tower, Cochrane officers remotely deployed another drone from its offices.

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They carry a lower cost and risk to RCMP: Helicopters typically cost the force more than $20 million, a drain on already tight resources and often unrealistic for smaller communities.

In some cases, the drones — capable of reaching more than 80 kilometres an hour — can beat police to a scene by five minutes or more, and prepare officers and emergency services for the scene they’re approaching.

Two of Canada’s major tragedies over the past decade encouraged RCMP to take a closer look at using drones: The 2014 Moncton shootings, which resulted in three officers being killed, and the 2020 Nova Scotia tragedy in which a man killed 22 people over a 13-hour crime spree.

Kunetzki said he’s looking forward to the technology reaching a point where the drones can fly greater distances and help monitor rural crimes. Currently, the drones are capable of flying in a nearly four-kilometre radius.

“Imagine a break-and-enter in progress that’s occurring 30 minutes outside of an urban area — we can look at leveraging strategic locations to launch a drone that will fly that distance,” he said.

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The drones would give officers better ability to approach critical incidents, such as those involving an active shooter, with a lower risk to the public and officers — while providing a bird’s-eye view of the scene.

RCMP expects the aircraft will be used in all kinds of situations, such as crimes in progress, flight from police, suspicious persons, missing persons — and even emergency or natural disaster responses.

The drones are purely used for observation, according to RCMP, and aren’t weaponized. Some can be equipped with loud speakers, emergency lights and sky hooks to carry emergency equipment. Officers on Friday said pre-recorded messages can be blared from certain drones equipped to do so, making them a communication tool in emergency situations.

The cameras attached to the drones come with remarkable clarity. From its stomach-lurching heights above a scene, it can zoom in to read a licence plate and features stabilizing technology that provides a clear picture on windy days.

The RCMP will produce a report on its findings when the testing concludes, Kunetzki said, which will help chart the path forward for making the technology more common across Canada.

“It’s incredible the evolution of drones and what they’re bringing right now, to bring us to even have these types of trials,” he said.

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