16 Feb 2021 British police have begun employing drones to monitor political protests throughout the country, as campaigners warn that the increasingly heavy-handed tactics employed by the police may be used to “silence dissent”. A freedom of information request from the UK Drone Watch campaign group found that police across the country have begun using drones to surveil protests. Police forces in Surrey, Cleveland, Staffordshire, Gloucestershire and West Midlands, as well as the Devon and Cornwall and Avon and Somerset forces, were all found to have used drones during protests, The Guardianreported. Protesters monitored by the police with drones included anti-lockdown, Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion activists as well as one so-called ‘extreme-right protest’.