Victoria, Australia is in the process of creating a new counter terrorism program that will take advantage of drone technology. The drones will be used to fly over crowds during major events such as football matches, concerts, and other public events. Ross Guenther, the head of Victoria Police counter terrorism unit, warns that the threat of terrorism is always present. Large public events always raise concerns for law enforcement in terrorism control.

Another aspect of the strategy involves the collaboration of the police force with local students. There will be a team of elite students recruited who will be tasked with cracking the encrypted communications between terrorists. This will be one of the first times that such a collaboration has taken place. The team is set to begin this landmark new plan soon.

Part of the initial training course will be on the use of drones. Many other countries, such as the US and France, have already seen the importance of drone technology in surveillance. Now it is time for Australia to adopt this modern tool in counter terrorism. The way in which a drone would operate in a situation such as large public gathering is by monitoring suspicious activities. For example, the drone operator could fly the drone over a crowd and look for individuals carrying backpacks. If an individual leaves a backpack unattended, the drone will be able to instantly notify authorities where to find the potentially dangerous backpack, as well as track where the person who dropped it went off to.

It comes as no surprise that such advanced measures must be taken nowadays. Police revealed recently that since 2005, 11 of the 25 terrorists attacks on Australian soil, took place in Melbourne. Luckily 18 out of the 25 were successfully thwarted. Within the next few months, Victoria police plan to set up a center where investigators and academic experts can work together and drones will make up a major component of this new security endeavor.

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