Metropolitan police interested in using eagles to take down drones

The Metropolitan police said commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe was impressed by a similar Dutch initiative and wants to bring it to London

 

 

A Dutch police image of a trained eagle about to put its claws into a flying drone. Photograph: AP

Kevin Rawlinson

Monday 8 February 2016 07.42 GMT

 

Scotland Yard is interested in emulating a Dutch police initiative to use eagles to take down drones, the Metropolitan police has said.
The force’s commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, was impressed by the Dutch programme in which trained birds hunted down drones.
There have been concerns that drones are increasingly being used to commit crime.

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Police have warned that they can be deployed to spy on homes targeted for burglaries and there have been reports of them being found in the grounds of prisons with drugs attached.
“As would be expected in an organisation that is transforming we take an interest in all innovative new ideas and will of course be looking at the work of the Dutch police use of eagles,” said a Met spokesman.

According to the Times, a YouTube video of an eagle catching a drone was shown to Hogan-Howe, who expressed enthusiasm at a management meeting and dispatched a senior officer to determine whether it could work in London.

 

According to Guard From Above, the Hague-based firm that trains the birds of prey, the approach is a “a low-tech solution for a high-tech problem”.
US conservation organisation the National Audubon Society said that eagles would attack the aircraft because they regard them as other birds of prey encroaching on their territory.
Spokesman Geoff LeBaron said they birds were capable of avoiding the drones’ rotors: “They seem to be whacking the drone right in the centre so they don’t get hit – they have incredible visual acuity and they can probably actually see the rotors.”