5.15.35 = KDVR – Story by Brooke Williams
The police department has pilots within the agency and has been using drone technology for many years, CCPD Chief of Police Darrel Guadnola said in a video on YouTube.
“What changes with the DFR program is that we will be able to fly beyond the visual line of sight. However, to do this, we have aggressively navigated processes and requirements with the FAA to make this a reality,” he said.
Guadnola said the city will have drones strategically placed all over the city, where they will be able to be launched, flown and docked again by remote pilots working in the real-time crime center. Drones will be installed at the tops of several buildings.
The drones will only be authorized to launch after a call for service from a citizen reporting an event in progress in which a drone may help police, or after an alert from the FLOCK public safety system, which detects license plate numbers and gunfire.
“You’ll start to see drones above some of our active calls for service, getting there before officers on the ground to survey the scene, make sure it’s safe for our officers to enter, and gather important evidentiary information,” the police department wrote in a post on Facebook.
Guadnola said the drones will not be used to survey the city or actively look for any law violations, and will only be used in response to calls or alerts to help officers in the field.