The Spanish government recently announced that a plan will be carried out soon in order to stop speeding. The use of surveillance helicopters will become a reality in major cities. They will be able to determine the speed of the vehicle and even issue speeding tickets. In the USA there is already a system that uses fixed-wing aircrafts for traffic enforcements but they can only calculate the speed and a police officer must pull over the motorist in order to issue the ticket.
Spain’s system is better when it comes to technological breakthroughs. It will be very expensive but the results are impressive as the need of a ground unit will be eliminated. Helicopters will be equiped with a Wescam MX15 forward-looking infrared camera that can take close-up photographs of the vehicle’s license plate. An airborne radar system can then generate a speed estimate that will appear on the video image.

The new radar system will be accurate from an altitude of 1000 feet and a distance of 1 km. The only drawback is that the system can not be used in court prosecutions until the Ministry of Industry can file the needed paperwork that claims the device combination is accurate. Expenses will be enormous but police hopes to have the camera-equipped helicopters ready to patrol Valencia, Madrid, Zaragoza, Malaga, A Coruna, Valladolid and Seville. A EC135 surveillance helicopter costs around $7.3 million and it also brings an extra to the bills of $1.5 million per year to cover operating costs.