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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/12/sydney-police-drones-chase-suspects-moree-new-south-wales-ntwnfb>
"A man jumps a fence and runs through a dry back yard. He passes a rusty
trailer and jumps another fence in the regional New South Wales town of Moree.
The man then tears through more back yards, leaping fences as he goes, before
police officers close in from all sides. Eventually, he is captured and led
away in handcuffs.
It looks like a scene from a film. But the action captured on video is real.
And the drone tracking the accused is being operated by police officers, not in
Moree, but 500km away in Sydney.
The man’s arrest in mid-January for an alleged machete attack marked the debut
of what the NSW police force says is an Australian first.
They have dubbed the trial “PolAir-Remote”. It relies on two drones that live
in their own self-contained boxes on the roof of Moree police station. They are
launched and controlled from Sydney and recharge automatically when docked.
The state police minister, Yasmin Catley, says the drones will be a “tool in
the toolbox” when it comes to combating youth crime.
But legal and civil liberties advocates believe the six-month Moree trial could
deepen distrust in law enforcement – and some locals say it already has.
“There is that distrust … especially if it hasn’t happened anywhere else in
Australia,” the Miyay Birray Youth Services chief executive, Darrel Smith,
says.
“In some aspects, you think it is a targeted thing, but hopefully it’s not.”
Jonathan Hall Spence, the principal solicitor at the Justice and Equity Centre,
says the drones could worsen generational trauma held by the local Aboriginal
community. Moree was the backdrop for some of the harshest forms of segregation
and racial discrimination in Australian history – and the social divide remains
today."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
