The first quadcopter I saw up up close and personal was the original Parrot AR.Drone, which was priced at a cool $300 way back in 2010.
Since then, a wide range of quadcopters have hit the market, with most carrying relatively affordable price tags.
So it comes as little surprise that law enforcement officials have jumped on the quadcopter bandwagon, with Japanese police and Chiba University researchers testing the ‘copters in an emergency drill simulating an explosion in a chemical plant.
The exercise was apparently a success, and local police are now mulling over the possibility of deploying the drones for reconnaissance missions.
Personally, I can see the system being very helpful in hazardous situations where sending in emergency workers and police officers would be dangerous, such as a nuclear, biological or chemical incident.
Of course, quadcopters could also be equally helpful for help law enforcement officials interested in scouting out dangerous locations before launching a raid.
