Police have used drones in over 140 operations in Derry over the last three years, Derry News can reveal.

Police confirmed that drones were used 32 times for ‘aerial coverage; two search operations; 10 times for photo/video purposes; 10 public order operations; 19 parades; 10 times for ‘imaging scenes; 58 times for ‘district policing and training’ purposes.

The PSNI also confirmed that they could neither confirm nor deny certain aspects of the FOI request, namely national security reasons.

The PSNI response stated: “Police forces work in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies and on a daily basis information is freely shared in line with information sharing protocols. Modern day policing is police intelligence led and this is particularly pertinent with regard to law enforcement.”

The response added: “Whilst there is a public interest in the transparency of policing operations and providing assurance that the police service is appropriately and effectively engaging with the threat posed by various groups or individuals, there is a very strong public interest in safeguarding the integrity of police investigations. 

“As much as there is public interest in knowing that policing activity is appropriate and balanced this will be overridden in exceptional circumstances. 

“The areas of police interest discussed above are sensitive issues that reveal local intelligence and, therefore, it is our opinion that for these issues the balancing test for confirming or denying whether any information is held is not made out. 

“Taking into account the current security climate within the United Kingdom, the disclosure of information which may aid criminal/terrorist elements would impact on the force's ability to monitor this activity. Weakening the mechanisms used to monitor and investigate criminal activity, and specifically terrorist activity,would place the security of the country at an increased level of danger. 

“Irrespective of what information is or is not held, the public entrust the Police Service to make appropriate decisions with regard to their safety and protection and the only way of reducing risk is to be cautious with what is placed into the public domain. 

“The cumulative effect of terrorists gathering information from various sources would be even more impactful when linked to other information gathered from various sources about terrorism. 

“At this moment in time it is our opinion regarding any disclosure by PSNI, no matter how generic, that it favours neither confirming nor denying that information is held. However, this should not be taken as conclusive evidence that the information you requested does, or does not, exist.”