How we use drones to investigate breaches

Our Planning Compliance Team and Waste Enforcement Team uses drones (also called UAVs; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to investigate breaches of planning control and waste crime offences.

Drones help us to gather time-stamped evidence including aerial views on sites:

• with restricted access
• that cover a large area
• that include multiple properties

This improves our efficiency and accuracy.

Our Waste Enforcement Team deploys UAVs to detect and prevent waste-related offences.

This technology provides critical evidence for investigations and supports joint operations with partner agencies. This reduces disruption for landowners and reinforces our commitment to environmental protection and maintaining community standards.

Our procedures include:

• pre-flight checklists
• weather checks
• risk assessments

A visual observer must assist the pilot in maintaining line of sight during first-person view (FPV) operations.

We use UAVs to safely and transparently investigate offences.

Using UAVs has become common. It provides valuable advantages for our operations.

We ensure UAV operations are carried out safely and in accordance with regulatory requirements.

UAVs enable efficient, overt aerial inspections, reducing repeated ground visits and ensuring transparency and accountability throughout the enforcement process. This approach significantly enhances staff safety when operating in potentially confrontational situations or on remote, inaccessible, or large-scale sites. It also enables officers to make more informed decisions when progressing enforcement cases.

This approach enhances early intervention and informed decision-making while maintaining transparency. Formal authorisation under RIPA is required only for covert surveillance linked to offences carrying a custodial sentence of 6 months or more.

All evidence is collected and stored in line with the our Data Protection Policy.

Footage remains confidential during investigations and any material not relevant to the case will be securely destroyed or redacted.

For more information email our:

• Planning Enforcement Team on [email protected]
• Waste Enforcement Team on [email protected]