WATCH: Sharjah Police use drones to disperse public
James Thorpe
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Sharjah Police Force have taken to using drones in order to disperse groups of people standing in public spaces while the city is on a COVID-19 lockdown.
Sharjah authorities are using the UAVs equipped with loudspeakers in order to enforce the lockdown that has been put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of Thursday 26 March, there are 333 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UAE and two people have sadly died from the virus.
Measures have been put in place across the UAE, such as closing restaurants and malls as well as suspending public transport, in order to stop the spread of the disease. Any person caught breaking the lockdown rules will face a fine or a prison sentence.
According to Ken Withers, Director at International Electronic Security, this is part of an increasing trend for drones to be used to carry out wide area surveillance.
Withers added: “The benefit to the public is in allowing scarce police resources to be efficiently used for priority work. There is a value in providing the public with a view that authorities are enforcing any restrictions which can then influence the behaviour of the public to comply with restrictions. However, although the drones have a speaker capability, a physical response will be required to back up any observations that the UAV makes.”
You can watch the full video below (credit: Times of Oman):
[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6XdI0Wq21E”]
