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Wood Buffalo RCMP is adding more eyes in the skies above Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo.

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Alberta RCMP has been testing different types of drones since early June across the province. There are plans to deploy the technology across Canada in the near future. Wood Buffalo RCMP has two drones in Fort McMurray and a third drone in Fort Chipewyan. Chief Superintendent Mark Hancock hopes to add more drones to the detachment in upcoming years.

“Many things come to mind for us like missing people, you could have missing hunters or people in the woods, boaters, wildfires, natural disasters. It’s very helpful to pinpoint where people are. There’s also active investigations with property crime and of course more serious events,” said Hancock in an interview.

“I can think of files, even with missing people, where had we gone up it probably would have helped us a lot to find them, especially in the cold winter.”

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Drones have been used by the RCMP for more than 10 years. They are often deployed at crime scenes from the trunks of patrol cars. The need for better air support was identified by the RCMP after the 2014 mass shooting in Moncton and the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting.

The drones used by Wood Buffalo RCMP are the DJI Mavic 3T. They are not armed and are small enough to hold in your hand. They have a 56x zoom lens, a wide-angle lens and a thermal camera. Const. Luke Frampton, who is one of the drone operators in Fort McMurray, said it will be used to support officers already at the scene of a situation. The second drone in Fort McMurray is being used by a dog handler.

Hancock says helicopters and planes still have a role in policing when time and distance are factors. But he hopes to get a docking station for larger drones in Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan. These drones would go straight to calls and provide support for officers arriving at the scene.

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This new technology has civil liberties activists skeptical about privacy and police surveillance. Hancock said there are guidelines to prevent privacy violations. Deploying drones must be for legitimate investigative purposes. If police feel they need to fly a drone over private property, the same rules for police officers on the ground will apply, including the need for search warrants.

“It’s the same as any police investigation for us,” said Hancock. “We still are bound by not spying. People out there in the public under the Criminal Code have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

Hancock’s excitement for the technology comes from a June visit to the Red Deer RCMP detachment. A drone docking station was on top of the detachment and could be deployed to situations quickly. They were also controlled and monitored from the detachment.

Hancock said a drone was able to quickly locate a suspect in a dumpster after he had reportedly been causing problems at a halfway house.

“The technology has come so far so fast. I think this is only the beginning of what we’re going to see with drones in this industry and others,” said Frampton.

Correction: This article identified Mark Hancock as a superintendent. His rank is actually chief superintendent. The Today apologizes for the error.

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