A new, grant funded police drone being utilized by the White County Sheriff’s Department in an effort to expand the department’s capabilities.
Lieutenant James Blankenship said the Vantage Robotics drone has a thermal imaging camera. It will be used primarily for search and rescue, or high risk situations. Blankenship said there are some legal limitations for police drone use.
“The fourth amendment protects unreasonable search and seizures from surveillance on personal property,” Blankenship said, “Unless, like I said, the probable cause is there and is granted by a search warrant through a judge. That would be the process that we would have to take. But we can’t fly other than that.”
Blankenship said the department might fly the drone over public property during incidents like car accidents. Blankenship said he was interested in flying drones before the department received the grant. He said he has had a few recreational drones over the years, but the grant pushed him to get his Part 107 pilot license. Part 107 licenses are administered by the FAA and required for commercial use of small drones.
Major John Meadows is also a Part 107 drone pilot. He said the certification process was very tedious.
“Several days of training, you know, going through, learning the layout of maps, understanding where you can fly and where you can’t, the restrictions,” Meadows said. “It was a very difficult class.”
Chasing fugitives and locating people are two key functions of the police drone. Blankenship said early use of the drone has been successful. He said recently, it helped locate some people who ran off into the woods.
“We were able to get a drone up in the air with thermal imaging and be able to try to track those individuals down, which we were able to successfully do,” Blankenship said. “And then we led officers into the woods to be able to get those individuals out of the woods safely in a manner where they could get treated for medical reasons or figure out what was going on.”
The new police drone was purchased entirely with grant money. Blankenship said the county is searching for more grants to expand the drone program.
Blankenship said there is a possibility White County could use drones in other parts of first responding. He said the county has been in touch with several drone manufacturers about the possibility.
Blankenship said in the future, White County EMS could start using drones to locate and respond to emergencies faster.
