Drones to be used instead of officers on 999 calls to cut response times | UK News [Video]

Drones could be sent out to 999 calls instead of police officers to speed up response times, Jeremy Hunt said as he announced investment aimed at making public services ‘more efficient’.

Victims of crime could also report them by video call, the Chancellor added as he unveiled a £230million package to roll out new ‘time and money saving technology’ in his Budget statement.

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Mr Hunt told MPs: ‘Police officers waste around eight hours a week on unnecessary admin – with higher productivity, we could free up time equivalent to 20,000 officers over a year.

‘So we will spend £230 million rolling out time and money saving technology which speeds up police response time by allowing people to report crimes by video call and where appropriate use drones as first responders.’

The Chancellor said violence reduction units and hot spot policing ‘have prevented an approximate 136,000 knife …