The City of Cape Town is set to become the first municipality in the country to use drone technology in its fight against crime.

Barry Schuller, the city’s director of CCTV and radio communications, explained that a meeting to start the process had been concluded with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in June.

If given the green light, Cape Town will be the first to deploy this technology to fight crime, reports the Weekend Argus.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said the city has already sent staff for training, but official consent may still take a year. He hopes that the drones could be in the air within the next year.

“To our knowledge, there are no other municipalities in the country that are using drones or investigating the use of drones. Cape Town would be one of the first municipalities to undertake such an initiative,” he said.

According to the report, the city has spent more than R500 000 on drones, which would be used for pre- and post-operations.

CoCT Mayco Member for Economic Opportunities James Vos says monitors, cameras, and drones will be operational by December. #TMNP #TableMountainSafety https://t.co/bU7uFBUAJi

— CapeTalk on 567AM (@CapeTalk) August 12, 2019

The technology will be used to combat crimes of different magnitudes, will enable mobile monitoring and will be piloted remotely by trained individuals.