Unmanned police drone is grounded after arrest

Less than a week after it 'arrested' its first suspect, Merseyside Police's unmanned hovering camera has been grounded. The £40,000 drone, one of several used by police forces across England for surveillance, was first launched in 2007, amid controversy and fears that Britain was becoming an 'Orwellian' state.

Last August, the Derbyshire force used their new toy to keep an eye on a BNP rally, but the Merseyside one is the first to lead to an arrest. Merseyside Police announced last week they had used the drone, essentially a three-foot toy helicopter with a CCTV camera attached, to find a suspected car thief in thick fog. Using thermal imaging, the drone operator could 'see' the suspect because of his body heat, and directed police on the ground to make the actual arrest. The man has now been released on bail.

But now it has emerged that even as they got their man, the Merseyside Police were themselves in breach of the law. The drone has had to be grounded not out of respect for civil liberties, but because it was flying without the correct licence. A spokesman confirmed last night that the Civil Aviation Authority is investigating the alleged breach of an 'Air Navigation Order'.

The trouble stems from a change in the law made on January 1. When the drones were first introduced in 2007 and 2008, it was thought that they would be classified as toys and would be exempt from civil aviation requirements. But now, drones under 7kg need CAA permission to fly within 164ft of people and within 492ft of buildings.

The Merseyside force said: "Since [we have] known of the change in regulations all Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) flights have been suspended and will remain so until the appropriate licence has been granted."

The announcement that drones were being trialled in 2007 came on top of worries about excessive surveillance even among the police themselves. Hampshire's deputy chief constable, Ian Redhead, had warned of an "Orwellian situation" with cameras on every street corner, while Colin Langham-Fitt, acting chief constable of Suffolk, had said: "There should be a debate about the ongoing erosion of civil liberties."

On the plus side, the hovering snitches are at least human-controlled, and, unlike some military robots, do not make their own decisions. Nor do they carry guns: in 2007 a South African robot cannon malfunctioned during a military exercise, opening fire uncontrollably and killing nine soldiers.