Western Australia has begun using police drones kitted with lights, sirens and speakers that will boom loud messages to people ignoring the Government’s strict new social distancing rules.
“I understand this is extreme and draconian, this is not normal but we want to send a message to people,” WA Premier Mark McGowan said during a press conference announcing the rollout.
“The primary objective is to reinforce the serious nature of the environment we’re in.”
The drones will join 200 police officers patrolling the state and dishing out $1,000 on-the-spot fines to anyone caught breaking the restrictions.
Sounds extreme – but they’re not the only drones in the works to combat the spread of the virus.
A team of researchers at the University of South Australia is currently developing ‘pandemic drones’ that will use specialised sensor and computer vision system to detect health symptoms such as temperature, heart and respiratory rates – and will even be able to tell someone is sneezing or coughing in a crowd as well as offices, airports, cruise ships, aged care homes and workplaces.
No timeline on these drones yet or if the Government would even use them, but given the current situation, we’d say anything’s possible.
Definitely time to keep your head down!
