Law Enforcement Utilizing Drones In Unique Ways

What is she wearing? She wearing, black socks. Pants. Green and white. A 13 year old girl reported as a runaway to the Collier County Sheriff's Office one evening in February. How long ago did she leave? About ten minutes ago. She has long black hair. Drone pilot Brian Barcelo just wrapping up a drone training session when the call came in to help find the girl last seen near a Naples area church. So I immediately responded to the scene. Not too far away. I met up with another drone pilot that was already on scene. We checked the wooded area and we were using thermal at the time, so we were able to see some heat signatures. These were just animals, you know, rabbits and things like that. Small cats. And then we kind of expanded the perimeter of our search. He went southbound. I went northbound, and as I approach the heat signature, I saw that he's go from a walking to a running stance. Once I got close enough, I switched over. I turned on the spotlight, switched over to our color monitor. And then I was able to identify her, based on the clothing she was wearing within about a half hour of deploying his drone. The girl was discovered unharmed. It was very rewarding. Yeah, I was able to. And narrow definitely the search down to a particular area. And deputies were able to respond within seconds. Sergeant Eliana moreira supervises the Collier County Sheriff's Office drone unit. She says it's just one example of how drones are being used each day to protect and serve. They assist with search and rescue. They are rapid, deployable drones, and deputies have them on the field at all times so they're ready to go. The high tech tools emerging as a powerful force, opening up lines of human connection, even promoting empathy and calm during times of crisis. It's crucial because it de-escalate situations. So I've seen situations where, person has been in mental distress and the presence of a deputy has agitated that. But they could back up. The drone helped units on scene keep eyes on the person, but not agitating the situation. So we were able to talk to that person and communicate and de-escalate and negotiate with that person. The community remains safe. The deputies on scene remain safe, and the person in distress, remains safe. Billy Gessner is a drone pilot and tech manager for the call your county sheriff's office real time operations center. We can clear rooms. We can clear vehicles, and we can provide observational awareness to responding deputies before they can get into harm's way. So if there is a barricaded subject in a house, we could actually send a drone inside the house to get a lay of the land before we even send an individual or a responding deputy inside the house. So that's for officer safety. Gessner says Sheriff Kevin Rambo expanded its drone unit almost twice the size of a year ago, purchasing 34 drones for almost $700,000. The majority of the cost more than $450,000, paid for with a grant from the state of Florida. Florida passed legislation that we are no longer allowed to use drones from countries of foreign concern. One of those is China that is made DJI products. So we are no longer allowed to use DJI. So we were afforded the opportunity by FDLE to return those drones to FDLE and then get funding from then to purchase new drones that are made here in America. Gessner says they recently brought on new drone pilots. We were just around 18 a few months ago, and we put out, feelers to say, hey, do you want to join the drone unit? We had almost 30 people that wanted to join within a week. So we set them up to take that part 107 exam, and we put them through a class. Every one passed, every single person that went to our class that took the exam, passed the exam to become a pilot. Some pilots taking the drones home with them as part of a drone call out program. And it's very important because our county is so large. Our county is 20 300mi². Yes, a lot of it is Everglades, but we do have a huge county, including Immokalee. So we want to make sure that we put drones in pilots hands that can respond to calls in a timely manner. Eyes in the sky. Giving boots on the ground. Life saving information when minutes matter most. We've found missing elderly individuals face down in water, so it does save lives. Not only officers lives, but also the community's lives as well. So there.