HENRIETTA, N.Y. — The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office unveiled its new “Drone-as-a-First-Responder” program Tuesday.
The sheriff’s office began testing the state-funded program in July, working out the kinks to make it run successfully since then. News10NBC’s Erin Mahon reported from the Regional Investigative Operations Center, where a pilot monitors 911 calls and decides if a drone should be dispatched from the county’s Zone B station in Henrietta.
“Ultimately, this is about giving first responders a much better understanding of the situation that they are about to walk into,” Chief Deputy Michael Fowler said.
The pilot has access to operational information needed for each mission, including weather and airspace, and continues to monitor conditions during the flight. The drones can help with responses ranging from tracking suspects and search and rescue to active burglaries and traffic infractions. Two docking stations sit at the station in Henrietta, remotely operated by the pilot in Greece.
Drone usage is not new to the sheriff’s office. Previous usage, however, required deputies to bring a drone to a scene, set it up, and then deploy.
“So this program here is a complement to how we actually currently operate. There’s an inherent benefit of it too, in that we are pre-positioned and ready to go and don’t necessarily have to have that direct response. So we can maybe shrink that time period of having these pre-positioned aircraft to be able to respond much more efficiently, effectively, fast,” Whiting said.
The drones travel about 45 miles an hour and can reach scenes faster than a deputy driving. Deputies can view a live feed from the drone on their devices or inside a patrol car. Pilots can also relay information from their view to responding deputies on the ground.
The public can access drone information about 24 hours after a response, including the type of response, flight path and a dashboard categorizing all data in one place. The sheriff’s office said this transparency is meant to alleviate fears about surveillance.
Website access: Drone as a First Responder Service
“I want to be very clear about one thing — DFR is designed strictly as a resource for active emergency responses in service to local governments. This is not an aerial patrol system and it is not a surveillance program,” Fowler said.
The sheriff’s office has grants pending to expand the program, with future docking station locations to be determined through a process similar to how it analyzes deputy patrol routes. For now, pilots operate the drones on weekdays. Drone video is recorded and saved like patrol car and body cam footage, stored for at least a year or longer depending on the nature of the response.
The drones were paid for with a New York state technology grant, costing around $410,000.
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office unveils first look at state-funded drone response program WHEC.com.
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