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Lieutenant outlines sheriff's office plan to buy six drones for crash reconstruction and search
Summary
Lieutenant Jennifer Chibanashu told the council the sheriff's office is ordering six drones to speed crash-scene work, assist search-and-rescue with thermal imaging, and reduce officer risk; operators will be FAA-certified and the program will follow aircraft privacy rules.
Lieutenant Jennifer Chibanashu, assigned to the marine and civil unit, told the Wood Village City Council the sheriff's office is “in the process of purchasing 6 drones” to support traffic-crash reconstruction, thermal searches and tight-area operations.
Chibanashu said one drone will be configured for high-resolution scene photography for vehicle-crash reconstruction, another will have FLIR thermal capability for locating missing people, and smaller models will be used around fences or inside tight areas during pursuits. “With the drone up in the air, you're deploying that thing. It's snapping all these photos, and we're able to take that to our computers,” she said, arguing the technology cuts scene-processing time and shortens road closures.
On privacy, Chibanashu told the council the office will apply existing aircraft rules to drones: “We're going to follow all the rules that we follow now with aircraft,” she said, adding operators will be FAA-certified and the agency is beginning with four operators and one supervisor and expects to expand. Councilors asked about maximum height, housing and deployment logistics; Chibanashu said the drones will be stored at the agency's Trotter office initially and may deploy from vehicles in the future.
The council did not take formal action; Chibanashu said the department has ordered the equipment and will train operators before wider deployment.
