RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (KESQ) The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department wants to build a real-time crime center in the Coachella Valley like the one Palm Springs Police Department recently launched and on Thursday, Rancho Mirage became the first city council the department has pitched.
The plan centers on a “drone as first responder” model: when a 911 call comes in, a pilot launches a drone that can reach the scene and give deputies a live aerial view before they arrive. Sheriff’s officials told the council the goal is faster response, better information and de-escalation fewer deputies racing toward a call with only a frantic caller’s partial account to go on.
The department says it tested the technology during the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals, running drones on calls for service in La Quinta to gauge how cell networks held up with roughly 100,000 people in town. On average, officials said, drones were getting eyes on scene in about 15 seconds…