At Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, campus police are testing a different kind of patrol vehicle: an electric vertical takeoff and landing craft that can rise straight up and travel over campus.
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Fox 13 News Tampa Bay (@Fox13TampaBay) summed up the scene in a TikTok video where a reporter started by saying, “Y’all, the future is here. It is here.”
@fox13tampabay Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland is now home to the first flying electric vertical takeoff and landing police vehicle in the country. ⠀ ♬ original sound – FOX 13 News Tampa Bay
Fox 13 called the eVTOL the country’s first airborne police vehicle, and footage from a test run showed it lifting off and zipping around campus.
The department plans to use the aircraft in safety operations, giving officers a way to move above or across parts of the university grounds that roads can’t reach…