South African residential estates are now using drones to keep their perimeters secure, according to Kim James, director of Drone Guards – a company which has been contracted to provide drone security services to a number of residential estates in the country.<\/p>\n
Speaking to BusinessTech, James said that all of the drones are piloted by a human operator, with a second operator often waiting on standby depending on conditions.<\/p>\n
“The drones are programmed to follow a co-ordinated GPS position around the perimeter of the estate, with the pilot trained to take it off course and follow an intruder if need be,” she said.<\/p>\n
“In addition to high-end cameras, they are also equipped with thermal technology for night time flights with the video live-streamed to a ground control which monitors the feeds.”<\/p>\n
Unlike a traditional static CCTV setup, James said that drones can actively patrol an area which means they are preventative instead of reactive.<\/p>\n
“They also have the added element of surprise as people can’t know what we can see,” she said.<\/p>\n
Regulations<\/strong><\/p>\n With drones being used in residential areas, there are some regulatory and privacy concerns that may arise.<\/p>\n James said that while Drone Guards has been given licensing permission by the national drone regulator to fly over residential areas and roads, there are still a number of strict rules the group must follow, she said.<\/p>\n This includes the rule that no drone may fly above 400 feet (120 metres) and that the security service must ask for homeowner permission before flying a drone over a property.<\/p>\n “It is not our intention to fly over houses, and we only want to fly over the perimeter of these estates,” said James.<\/p>\n “Regulation says that we have to get homeowner permission or Home Owner Association permission in the case of an estate. If we want to fly over a road we also need the permission of the municipality.”<\/p>\n While the regulations do not provide guidance on the privacy aspects of drone usage, James said that they have taken a number of preventative steps including tilting the cameras in such a way so that they may not see into people’s gardens.<\/p>\n She added that Drone Guards have held a number of open days to demonstrate the technology to residents and has not had difficulty in obtaining permission from estates.<\/p>\n Costs and other security systems<\/strong><\/p>\n James couldn’t provide information on which estates were currently using drone technology for security reasons, but confirmed that the service is currently live in a number of areas.<\/p>\n “At present, not one estate we have presented to has said that it is not interested,” said James.<\/p>\n “However, a number of states have a clear security budget and are seeing this as an additional cost. This means they are looking to cut in other areas while introducing these drones.<\/p>\n “We instead recommend a more layered approach so that estates slowly introduce these drones in addition to their current security offerings.”<\/p>\n One possible way around the cost issue, is a ‘neighbour-model’ that Drone Guards is currently trialling, said James.<\/p>\n This model allows multiple neighbouring properties to chip into the costs of the drone which will then focus on a randomised property each night of the week.<\/p>\n “This way the owners are only paying for the drone one night a week, but if there is an incident the operator can quickly fly from spot A to spot B and identify any issues,” James said.<\/p>\n
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