Police in the UK are planning to introduce unmanned spy drones for conducting routine monitoring work of antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of state surveillance. The arms manufacturer, BAE Systems, producer of a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are being used in war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

Allyn Thomas, Kent Police’s assistant chief constable, wrote to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which is responsible for regulating UK’s airspace, in March 2009 arguing that launching drones would be useful "in the policing of major events, whether they be protests or the Olympics". The sky spies could be implemented as early as 2012 at the Olympics in London. The drones are expected to take off and land on their own, reaching a predicted height of an estimated 20,000 feet to make it invisible from the ground, and are able to fly for 15 hours a day. Their launch would not only provoke civil liberty activists but also stir up discussions about the development of a Big Brother state in this country.

Mark Reckless, a member of the Kent Police Authority and a Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate in Kent, stated that he would need to be convinced that the sky spies were cost effective and proportionate. "In principle, I do not have objection to the force looking at it and keeping it under review but I am far from convinced that it would be cost-effective. There are issues around privacy and that would have to be taken into consideration. The question is whether using a drone would be proportionate to any of the benefits that might come from it?" The estimated cost of the launch of this project is £124 million, and with budget cuts suffered by the Ministry of Defence, it raises the question about its financing options.

Five other police forces have signed up to the scheme, supporting the mission to introduce drones into the routine work of the police, border authorities and other government agencies across the UK.

So far the CAA has been reluctant to license UAVs in normal airspace because of the risk of collisions with other aircrafts. Nevertheless, the launch of sky spies seems only to be a question of time, money and further advancement of technology.