Just Stop Oil activists set to be monitored by drones at major sporting events this summer

Drone technology is to be deployed at major sporting events this summer to combat the risk of disruption as a result of protests by groups including Just Stop Oil and Animal Rising.

However, tech company Halo Solutions is not contracted to monitor Wimbledon, where activists today staged a protest on court 18 on the third day of the world-famous tennis tournament.

Neither was it involved at Lords last week for the second Ashes test, which saw one Just Stop Oil protester actually carried off the pitch by England batsman Johnny Bairstow.

However, Halo’s system was used the previous test, at Edgbaston in Birmingham, which passed peacefully without any protestor incident.

The Halo (v5) system integrates multiple feeds of information across a venue, including crowd density, security protocols and actions, integration of CCTV from drone and body cams, and health and safety protocols.

The company has just launched its live stream system, which enables security staff to watch footage from drones, body-worn cameras and mobile phones in real time.

It provides a chief pilot who usually operates between one and two drones, with footage beamed back to him on a handheld monitor and the control room at the same time.

The pilot can zoom in on suspicious looking individuals whenever deemed necessary, making it easier to keep tabs on them.

The announcement that the system will be rolled out this summer comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the Sports Minister Lucy Frazer held talks with senior sporting leaders, event organisers and the police over ways to prevent further chaos.

The use of drones at major sporting events is not new - but they have been used sparingly at football matches and music festivals, most often for marketing purposes, rather than surveillance, with pre-existing technology for drones streaming live footage into a control room described by the company as “patchy”.

Lloyd Major, a crowd safety expert and former National Counter Terrorism Unit Specialist Tactical Support Officer, said the

Halo Drone and Stream system could offer vital frontline “eye-in-the-sky” support to counter terrorism, security and safety strategies at major sporting events.

“Combined with previous and existing event intelligence, we can provide proactive surveillance and reconnaissance direct to the control room.”

David Clarke, Major Event Safety Officer to Warwickshire County Cricket Club, said: “The system’s real-time capabilities meant we could dynamically monitor for protester activity, touts and persons of interest, as well as gaining oversight on crowd flows and key junctions surrounding the stadium for the biggest occasion of the year.

“This brought real-time insights and intelligence to decision-makers in our control room, and the fact that we can instantly tag footage as evidence directly onto incidents in the Halo system is a game-changer for our reporting to keep our crowds and venue safe at every event we host.”

As well as Just Stop Oil's brief disruption at Lord's, the Gallagher Premiership rugby final at Twickenham and the World Snooker Championship have been affected in recent months.

The Home Office declined to set out which policing leaders and sporting groups are attending the meeting.

Writing in The Sun today, Mr Sunak praised Bairstow for having "coolly carried away" the Just Stop Oil "eco-zealot" who had disrupted the match.

He said: "As Bairstow showed at Lord's, people want an end to this disruption.

“And I will work with the police and sporting authorities to ensure we do stop it."