For several years now at the Greek and European level plans have been developed to increase the use of drones on the continent. In October of 2013 the European Parliament approved the European Border Surveillance System, or Eurosur – a plan to monitor the European Union’s borders through the use of drones and satellite systems.
Greece, with its long coastal border has been one of the EU countries eager to adopt the use of drones. Around the same time that Eurosur was approved, Greece joined several other member states (Germany, France, Spain Italy, the Netherlands and Poland) to form a ‘drone user group’ of potential buyers in support of a programme to develop a next-generation European-built UAV. Furthermore in April, the Ministry of Shipping issued a competition call for the creation of a drone that would be used to monitor irregular immigrants attempting the sea crossing into Greece.
In all of the above cases it has been stressed that the use of drones by Greece and other European member states would chiefly be for border control, disaster response and military purposes.
But revelations in yesterday’s Kathimerini newspaper indicate that the government is also looking to use drones for domestic policing – and has been for some time.
The newspaper, citing a high-ranking official in the Greek police, reports that the Public Order Ministry is in the final stages of a plan to purchase UAV’s from Israeli companies, with the final details of the number and type of drones to be purchased still to be determined. According to the ‘well informed’ police sources cited by the article, the aircraft are to be used for ‘border control, but also for anti-terror operations in urban areas’.
Note that some European police forces have already begun using drones in a limited capacity. In February 2010 a suspected car thief became the first person to be arrested thanks to a drone in the UK when a small tetracopter fitted with cameras was used by British police to spot the man hiding behind some bushes. However the Israeli made 'Heron' type drone Greek police are reportedly considering is of a different order of complexity, resembling more the large military drones used by US forces for surveillance in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.
Furthermore – and perhaps most shockingly – the article states that the idea for the purchase of the drones first arose during the mass protests in the fall and winter of 2011. The ‘Indignants’ protest in Greece were related to the ‘Indignados’ in Spain and similar to the Occupy Wall Street protests. While there were numerous clashes with the police, the vast majority of demonstrators were peaceful, occupying Syntagma Square for several weeks. According to the article, under the ‘intense pressure’ of the mass demonstrations, Greek officers had met with representative of an Israeli company regarding the purchase of the specific type of unmanned aircraft. The push to purchase drones by the Greek police has since been supported by the Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias.
The revelation that Greek police interest in the use of drones came as much due to the mass demonstrations on the streets of Athens as it did over concern over border control, raises the very real possibility that soon UAVs will join tear gas and police batons as regular features of protests in Athens. Is controlling a mass demonstration one of the ‘anti-terrorist operations’ the Greek police is planning to conduct with UAVs? Were that to come to pass how long it would it be before other European capitals followed suit?
The Kathimerini article also mentions that the Greek police is also embarking on a programme to repair security cameras initially installed in 2004 in Athens and which were subsequently – together with the data center linking them – destroyed by anti-establishment protesters.
In short, despite (or perhaps because of) austerity, the Public Order Ministry appears more than happy to increase its spending on sophisticated technologies of domestic surveillance.