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Gatwick drone chaos really should be wake-up call to UK, says Met chief

The Gatwick drone incident that brought manchester airport to the standstill should be a “wake-up call” into the whole country, the Metropolitan police commissioner claims.

Cressida Dick, the UK’s most senior police chief, said the Met may not be intervening in the investigation into drone sightings at Gatwick.

It comes after John Woodcock MP, affiliated with the property affairs
committee, said clearly there was a case for any “different police force” to
investigate the serious security incident.

The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said police had “not handled their communication response well” after Det Ch Supt Jason Tingley said there’s a chance there never had been any drones at Gatwick.

“This whole sorry episode shows why we must have a nationally agreed and
understood robust procedure for dealing with incidents this way,”
Woodcock said. “The country have been caught about the hop. Could possibly be a
case for a different law enforcement officials [to get involved].”

Dick told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday there “were many sightings of drones over a number of different occasions”.

“The drone technology is always changing C we will need to keep up with that. There are a whole range of tactics and technologies that we are now using, can make use of and the near future they will need to modify again I’m certain, it really is very, very hard,” she said.

“I think the full country and of course government entities may have watched what’s gone on and say we have to up our game here, we need to work a lot more closely together with the private companies, we need to work a lot more closely while using military, we must act as able to pun intended, the criminal use of drones for whatever motivation near our airports C and, if somebody does do this, we should locate them at once, purchase the drone in order plus bring folks to justice.”

When questioned about whether the Met would take over any investigation, she said: “Sussex are a huge way down a large and complex investigation. For that Met to walk in and strive to take that on would cause hiatus in the investigation.”

Dick also discussed attacks around the police being filmed by members of the public, with visitors to intervene if he or she see such incidents. It comes after having a female police man was filmed this holiday season being kicked from the head while in the routine traffic stop.

“It’s appalling that officers are assaulted plus in videos you will notice others jeering, that may be disgusting C no common thing but it’s extraordinary. I need to live in a society where individuals will intervene and if they see someone through the emergency services being attacked, they’ll help,” she said.

In a far-ranging interview, Dick also discussed the potential of no deal on exiting the EU precisely what that could mean for policing.

“If we emerge [without a deal] immediately and then there aren’t any obvious replacements for anyone instruments, that should mean we’ll should work incredibly difficult on a bilateral basis with countries to go into place getting some sort of method of group,” she said.

“The consequences of without having those actions just in case there was a no-deal scenario, it would be challenging do at any given time – we are going to ought to replace a few of things currently utilised in terms of admission to databases – such things C have got to replace as effectively as possible and it could well be more costly and slower, undoubtedly plus it would potentially squeeze public at stake – there is no question this.”

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