Lincolnshire Police train drone pilots in children’s soft play area

Fascinating footage shows police training drone pilots - in a children's soft play centre.

Lincolnshire Police pilots have been honing their skills by navigating climbing frames, nets and slides at a soft play course.

The force posted footage of one of their DJI Avata drones being followed as it navigated the colourful kid's obstacles last week.

They said the soft play provided "one of the most challenging environments" to test their abilities ahead of search and surveillance operations in the real world.

Lincolnshire Police Drones wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "As part of todays training we visited a children’s soft play area.

"We understand it may appear strange but it’s one of the most complex and challenging environments to refine our skills."

One person commented: "Great idea whoever thought of doing it there-presume it keeps them in one piece if it crashes into the soft areas?"

The force replied: "Indeed but they are pretty strong even against a solid object. They have a pretty cool turtle mode that flips it back upright."

In response to another comment regarding their use, they said: "We use them for building searches where there is a threat or risk to officers.

"We have been very transparent about how we use it. Grows, fire arms incidents, etc. Mostly indoors of course."

Another web user joked: "Drones would be useful for finding your kid at the end of the soft-play session."