Tarlac town to use drones vs crimes

CONCEPCION, Tarlac, Philippines – This town will be the first in the country to have drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, to monitor the local peace and order situation and threats from natural disasters.

“We will even beat the police in using drones,” Mayor Andres Lacson told journalists yesterday.

He said the local government would buy at least two drones, which cost a total of P250,000.

The drones would be operational early next year. Lacson could not say where the machines were made.

He said the drones are equipped with cameras that relay images to a monitoring system in the town hall. Their batteries can last half an hour and they are designed to fly back to headquarters before their batteries are drained.

At the town plaza, Lacson showed journalists a replica of the drones that would fly over the plaza.

“Local businessmen can buy also cards that could link up with the drones, which would then fly to their establishments for monitoring,” he said.

“The drones are important not only in tracking down criminals but also in monitoring approaching floods from the Parua and Loong rivers, which can affect some 200 hectares of agricultural land,” he added.

The US military is using more sophisticated drones in tracking down the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an extremist group believed to be responsible for terrorist attacks.

In other parts of the world, drones are not considered for commercial purposes and some sectors have expressed fears drones would be used to invade privacy.