DuPage County committee approves $67,892 tethered drone for sheriff’s office; officials stress limited use and training

The DuPage County Judicial and Public Safety Committee voted Oct. 21 to approve a purchase order to Safeware Inc. for a tethered drone and five years of support, at a contract total not to exceed $67,892.25.

Committee members said the device is intended for limited, public-safety uses such as crowd oversight at large events and thermal searches for missing persons, and that the sheriff’s office will require ongoing training and a Lexipol-based policy governing deployment, evidence handling and storage.

Chief Bilodeau, Sheriff's Office, told the committee the device is not a free-flying aircraft and “this is a tethered drone that will literally go straight up in the air, 50 feet up in the air. It can stay up for over 24 hours.” He said the platform requires electricity and “it will take 2 people to set out the entire platform for the drone.” He added that the county’s written policy is “incredibly robust” and “takes into account federal government standards, takes into account the Illinois law pertaining to drone surveillance, has very strict limitations to use, evidence recovery, evidence storage.”

Member Schorze, Judicial and Public Safety Committee, said she would vote yes and asked how many people are trained to operate the system. Chief Bilodeau replied that two people are required to lift and set the platform and that the device “does not require a pilot's license to utilize.” He said the sheriff’s office will arrange ongoing training with the vendor for updates and new personnel: “Anytime they do an update, anytime we have new people who are gonna be deploying the drone, we will get them trained.”

Members pressed on visibility, noise and public notice. Chief Bilodeau said the device “is approximately 2 foot by 3 foot when it's up in the air, and you'll see the tethered cord. And it's not quiet. Drones are not quiet.” He said the sheriff’s office would post signs when the drone is in use: “If we ever have to put this drone up, much like when we do SWAT training, that'll be a big sign outside the area that says drone in use.”

Committee members also questioned procurement choices and import tariffs. Member Yu noted a tariff on the invoice and asked whether an American-made option had been considered. Chief Bilodeau said the office researched alternatives and selected the best option within the available price points, and that the Sourcewell contract used for the purchase permitted tariffs.

The motion to approve JPSP-47-25, the purchase order to Safeware Inc., was moved by Member Ozog and seconded by Member Hoenig and carried.

The committee record shows the purchase covers the period Oct. 28, 2025, through Oct. 27, 2030, and includes five years of technical support. No additional restrictions or operational hours were specified during the meeting.

Questions raised during the discussion included how often vendor-led training will occur (the sheriff’s office said training will be continuous as updates and staffing changes occur), whether the device would be used for emergency response training (the sheriff’s office indicated it could be used for search and large-event monitoring), and whether out-of-county mutual-aid relationships would continue to be used for non-tethered drone support. The committee did not amend the contract.

Votes at the meeting were voice votes; no roll-call vote tally was recorded in the transcript for this item.