Mark Shelton,Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management
The Hodgman Liberal Government is the strongest supporter of Tasmania Police and understands that investing in cutting-edge technology will help keep our communities safe.
Today we are delivering on our commitment to invest in police drones (Remotely Piloted Aircraft) and 16 drones will be rolled out around the State during July.
The drones are part of a $400,000 4-year commitment with the first 16 drones plus training and CASA licensing for police officers costing $100,000.
The drones will be located in all police districts and will be extremely valuable is areas like search and rescue, gathering evidence from crash scenes, illegal trail bike riding and public order responses.
A number of the drones will also have thermal capacity which will help in night searches as well as specialist and tactical responses.
The drones are governed by strict rules set by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority so as not to cause a hazard to other aircraft, people or property, and they can only be used with official authorisation.
The Hodgman Liberal Government has strongly backed our police force by restoring in our first term the 108 officers slashed by Labor and the Greens and we have already started recruiting a further 125 officers in this term of Government.
Additionally, we are also supporting our officers with better infrastructure, like new police stations, a new multi-purpose patrol boat, body-worn cameras and a Tasmania-first $6 million Health and Wellbeing program for our first responders.
The Hodgman Liberal Government makes no apology for being tough on crime and backing Tasmania Police with more recruits and modern equipment so that they can help keep Tasmanian communities safe.
