They were one of the first police organisations to adopt drone technology way back in 2020, deploying drones to chase criminals and suspects around the West Midlands region in England.

Now the police chiefs in the region are expanding drone operations into becoming the eye in the sky helping traffic keep moving and tackling traffic congestion across the West Midlands by relaying live footage to a control centre.

The BBC has reported that Transport for West Midlands (TFWM) love the drones because they help “cover gaps” not picked up by the region’s static CCTV cameras.

They also provide information after accidents and road closures.

Kerry Blakeman, of West Midlands Drone network, said they were “providing an eye in the sky” and teams were making “better decisions” to reduce congestion.

Aside from providing information after road closures and accidents, the drones recently helped shed light on congestion on the M5, which led to work being carried out.

TfWM, which is part of the area’s combined authority, said the drones were proving useful, as the static CCTV cameras are not always high enough to get an overall picture; while the drones have the added advantage of showing congestion from different angles.

“What we’re finding is drones allow us that flexibility to deploy an eye in the sky where we don’t have fixed camera coverage on the ground,” said Mr Blakeman.

“And it’s given us really good depth of view allowing us to make better decisions in terms of minimising traffic congestion.”

The live pictures from the drones are monitored by staff at the Regional Transport Coordination Centre in Birmingham. Information can then be sent out to drivers in the form of traffic alerts, including via WMRoads on social media.

The pictures are also being used with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify how junctions are being used and by which type of vehicles, as this is way quicker than monitoring this from the ground.

Drone coordinator Justas Vasiliauskas said work was carried out after footage showed an island at junction one of the M5 “all clogged up”.

This led to workers putting in a new set of signals “and since then the island has flowed like it should”, he said.

This work was actually recognised with an industry award in the autumn.