The force’s rural crime taskforce has recently undertaken practice using the technology in the dark.

Thames Valley officers have been practising using drones with the search light facility in order that the equipment can be used efficiently at night.

The force shares their drones through the Joint Operations Unit with Hampshire. Across both forces there are around 30 drones of varying types and 130 pilots.

The Rural Crime Taskforce has two drones shared between six pilots.

Credit: Thames Valley Police Rural Crime Taskforce

Each pilot is trained and assessed at least once a year and is registered with the CAA.

Drones are used for a variety of tasks including missing people, firearms incidents and road accident investigations. They are also deployed for pre-planned events such as music festivals. The RCT use them almost daily.

To date the team has used the tech to locate missing people as well as high value stolen machinery.