St Gallen uses drones to catch speeders, drawing legal criticism
Friday 16th October 2026 on 21:01 in
Switzerland
St Gallen’s cantonal police will continue using drones to detect serious speeding, despite legal experts’ concerns about privacy and the lack of specific legal authority, Swiss broadcaster SRF reports.
During six test checks on a winding mountain road, officers recorded two speeding offences and reported additional suspected unauthorised vehicle modifications. The police say the checks target drivers travelling far above the limit, not minor speeding violations.
Officers film vehicles only after their driving attracts attention, then calculate their speed from the footage. St Gallen is one of only two cantons in Switzerland known to use drones for speed checks. A survey by SRF found that Thurgau also uses them, while other cantonal police forces either said they were monitoring developments or that they lacked a legal basis.
Regina Kiener, a police law expert at the University of Zurich, said such checks must respect privacy and the rule of law. Patrice Martin Zumsteg, a police law expert at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, said St Gallen relied on general legal provisions and needed specific rules in both its police law and the Code of Criminal Procedure.
St Gallen’s police cite a 2024 ruling by the Thurgau High Court, which found that drone footage of a motorcyclist travelling at more than 200 kilometres per hour in an 80-kilometre-per-hour zone had been obtained lawfully. The court noted that filming began only after a specific suspicion arose. It also ruled that, even if the footage had been obtained unlawfully, it could still be used as evidence in such a serious speeding case.
Thurgau has used drones for speed checks since 2020 and says it has reported 12 cases. Several resulted in final convictions that were not appealed to the Federal Supreme Court. Zumsteg argues that Thurgau’s legal provision does not cover aerial surveillance of this kind and would not automatically apply in neighbouring St Gallen, which has different police legislation.
St Gallen police say they have reviewed the legal concerns and consider the checks permissible. The Federal Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether drone speed checks are generally lawful. A planned full revision of St Gallen’s police law could provide an opportunity to set out rules for their use.