The Crowded Space Drones director has worked alongside UK police and the FBI and was called in to help solve the Gatwick airport drone saga last month.
He toured the security hot spots in Melbourne during his recent visit to Australia and said popular spaces such as the MCG could greatly benefit from commercially licensed surveillance.
“The key thing from seeing the MCG is it’s a very congested sports venue so drones would be the perfect tool to see the entire area,” Mr McQuillan said.
“The [terrorism] threat level is huge at the moment.”
Crowded Space Drones being used in the UK. Credit:Crowded Space Drones
Crowded Space Drones can be dispatched at short notice around the clock for public safety and counter-terrorism operations as well as major festivals and sporting events.
In 2018 they stopped more than 200 illegal drone flights at major events in the UK.
Loading
“As an example we had a music festival in central London recently where the roads were closed and we had large lorries parked across roads to stop heavy vehicles going into the crowd,” he said.
“We got a phone call to the 60,000 person event; a car had rammed through road closures and was driving at speed towards the event.
“We got eyes on it and the police were able to just stop it. It turned out to be an Uber driver but it was one of our biggest near-misses.”
Mr McQuillan began working in public safety in 2004 before being hired as the head of security from 2011 to 2015 for the Game of Thrones franchise as it grew into one of the world’s most-watched TV series of all time.
As the popularity of the show continued to soar through, so did the eyes of the paparazzi. Mr McQuillan said with tight on-ground security, the would-be spoilers moved into the air.
“The paparazzi really innovated drone technology and we had to respond to that. The more I looked into it, the more interesting it became,” he said.
“Our technology developed and we kept Jon Snow dead for a year without people realising it so we were very happy with how it worked.”
Festivals such as Live Nation are also paying for their aerial surveillance, which means fewer police are needed for big events.
Specialist police have also contracted the company to help track criminals remotely.
“We’ve got specialist drones out there [that] allow firearm officers to talk to suspects so the police don’t have to be in bullet range,” Mr McQuillian said.
“The compact new Mavic Pro 2 comes with a microphone, which means you can fly up to a house that may have been barricaded and you’re not in bullet range.”
Jon Snow could be staring up the drones circling the sky above.Credit:HBO
Last year Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther revealed the remote-controlled technology was at the top of his wish list for counter terrorism operations.
Speaking on the back of the recent international terrorism conference, Mr Guenther said the challenge now for Victoria Police was to decide to purchase its own drones or employ a secondary agency to assist.
Queensland Police senior sergeant John Hildebrand carrying DroneShield’s drone gun, which was used at the Commonwealth Games.Credit:AAP
He said Mr McQuillan’s presentation at December’s international counter terrorism conference in Melbourne was particularly popular with attendees travelling from Canada, America, New Zealand and the United Kingdom for the presentations.
“It’s technology that’s evolving rapidly,” he said.
Currently police services in Western Australia and Queensland use small drones to assist with investigations such as recreating crash scenes.
In 2018 South Australia announced was in the process of equipping its police force with drone technology to help in counter terrorism efforts.
A spokesman from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said there were about 1400 certified drone operators across Australia and 10,000 licensed drone pilots.
Erin covers crime for The Age. Most recently she was a police reporter at the Geelong Advertiser.
Most Viewed in National
Loading
