POLICE IN AEROPLANE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21473, 22 April 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

POLICE IN AEROPLANE

The Surrey police are investigating the possibility of using aeroplanes against motor bandits. Suggested plans of action have been discussed with the chief officials of the Brooklands Flying School, and in a few weeks' time tests involving a staged motor-bandit raid, with a subsequent chase, will be made. " The idea is to reproduce as accurately as possible the conditions of a bandit raid," said Captain Duncan Davis, managing director of tho school. " Information of the ' raid ' will be telephoned to the school, and immediately ono or more private pilots will take off in tho direction in which the raiders have gone. They will keep in touch with the police by wireless, so that all later information will be available for them. At a certain height it will be possible for a pilot to recognise any. particular make of car, rush ahead, and drop message bags for motor-cycle patrols. This idea is in tho tentative stage at the moment, and tho tests may determine its practicability." In eases where tho bandits abandon a stolen car and tako to tho woods, tho aeroplane would circle about the area and notify tho ground police when the pursued men break cover. Air photography may also prove a useful aid in the capture of bandits.