MONTEGO BAY, St James — The Area One police should have the use of drone technology, dubbed ‘Eye in the Sky’, added to their crime fighting toolkit in a matter of six months, if everything works according to plan.

Commander of Area One, Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Ferguson made the revelation yesterday during a press conference at the Area One police headquarters at Sewell Avenue here in Montego Bay.

ACP Ferguson explained that the proposed venture, a private/public sector undertaking, should be economically viable.

“It’s a technology that is used internationally for crime and traffic management, and other disaster management and the cost benefit analysis outweighs the traditional ways that we are carrying out operational activities,” he said.

He explained that following the training of the police, the proposed project is intended to be piloted in the St James Police Division, where there has been a spate of serious crimes in recent years. The project will start with the use of one or two drones, after getting the go-ahead from the Civil Aviation Authority and other relevant bodies.

“At this time we are looking to have, maybe, one or two training drones, because we have to go through a process. We have to be looking at the law that regulates the use of drones,” the Area One police boss said.

Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Vernon Ellis, in outlining the benefits of the drone technology, argued that it will help to eliminate conflicting reports by police and civilians. “Basically, we are looking on the use of technology to combat the crime situation and we see where the drone technology will just be an added tool to this crime fighting.

The drone will also assist with transparency; reason being, the citizens can also feel safer because the account of the police, as also their account in certain circumstances, could be captured by the eye in the sky,” Detective Inspector Ellis said.

Additionally, he explained that the drones would be very useful in communities where there is the absence of proper road infrastructure, among other pluses.

“For tactical operations, where the risk is very high to officer safety, the drone could actually be used to reduce this risk. We could (also) use them for rescue missions, we could use them for traffic management, could also use it for surveillance purposes,” the detective pointed out.

“We intend to use these drones to come up with three dimension mappings of police hot spot areas.” Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Glendon Harris; members of the Montego Bay business community — Mark Hart, Angella Whitter, and Lee Bailey — expressed their willingness to assist with the acquisition of drones.