This week’s “Around the Commercial Drone Industry” news round-up looks at the use of drones for security around the US elections, an increase in rogue drone activity at UK jails, and a Missouri plan to use UAVs to find injured animals during hunting season.

UAVs for Election Protection

This year’s hotly contested US election season has caused law enforcement officials to find new ways to enhance security. As an NBC News report explains, “Election officials across the country are ramping up their security measures at polling places with voting underway in the presidential race, from beefing up law enforcement presence to donning bulletproof vests to deploying drones for surveillance amid an increasingly hostile environment.” For example, at the election tabulation center in Maricopa County, Arizona, “a hotbed of conspiracy theories, protests and threats for years,” officials are deploying “snipers on the roof, metal detectors and security at every entrance, drones surveilling overhead, and security cameras and floodlights to help law enforcement monitor the area.”

Drones will also play a role in election security in the nation’s capital. WTOP reports that Washington, DC police will “leverage its new helicopter, Falcon 1, and drones to monitor and protect critical areas during the election process.”

Rogue Drones on the Rise at UK Prisons

According to The Guardian, “Figures published by the Ministry of Justice reveal that the number of drones sighted or reported around prisons in England and Wales more than doubled between 2022 and 2023,” and “the number of drone incidents at prisons in England and Wales has risen almost tenfold since 2020, climbing to 1,063 incursions last year.” To combat the problem, the Ministry of Justice passed new counter-drone laws in January. Moreover, “Some prisons have introduced counter-drone technology to detect when unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are nearby but few, if any, are thought to actively block the devices from approaching.”

UAVs Help Hunters Recover Injured Animals

An update to Missouri's Wildlife Code now allows hunters to use drones “to recover wounded deer, turkey, elk, and black bear during the respective hunting seasons.” A report by KSDK stated that “all other uses of drones are still prohibited while hunting, including pursuing, taking, driving, or otherwise harassing wildlife.” To assist hunters, the Missouri Drone Deer Recovery has been created. The project, which also uses uncrewed technology to “to do health assessments on the size of local deer herds to prevent overhunting,” reports a “99% success rate recovering deer.”