Drones are just one tool the Naperville Police Department uses to assist with crimes in progress, helping officers get a faster view of the scene. But to take this crime-fighting tech up a notch, a new Drones as First Responders program will make this response automatic.
Department’s drone program assists crime response
“We’ve used drones for a ton of different missions that the police department’s been on,” said Chief of Police Jason Arres. “Drone as a First Responder is the next tech and evolution of our drone program and drone programs throughout the country, and what it’s about is faster response to calls in progress.”
Kevin Merrihew is one of the department’s twenty drone operators. He leads teams that use drones in situations where it can be helpful to have extra eyes in the sky, like in a recent business break-in.
“Once they cleared the building, we couldn’t find anybody in there. We then put our drones up in the air, and we were able to locate a person in the high brush around that,” said Kevin Merrihew, assistant team lead. “It was actually pretty impressive because our officers were walking through the weeds, and they might have been five feet from the subject, and they were not able to see that person where they were.”…