New drones take flight to help Brookhaven, GA, police fight crime
Drones are the newest first responder for the Brookhaven Police Department.
By TORI COOPER
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ATLANTA (WGCL) — The Brookhaven Police Department is taking flight to fight crime and save lives using their new Unmanned Arial Support (UAS) team.
“The Brookhaven UAS team is comprised of 16 licensed UAS piolets. All of our piolets are license to operate unmanned aircraft below 50 pounds,” Brookhaven Police Lt. Abrem Ayana said.
The department announced on Tuesday that they will now be deploying drones from eight different launchpads in different high crime areas throughout Metro Atlanta.
“The Brookhaven Police Department can remotely assess a situation, determine what resources are needed, mustarded up those resources, keep both our community and officers safe. We can cancel our ground units that may have to respond if there is no evidence that a crime is being committed,” Lt. Ayana said.
The department said that having these drones as the first responders on scene will enable officers to know exactly what is going on before they even arrive.
Officers will be able to view drone footage from the scene from their area computers and even their smart phones to determine the best approach.
The department adds that the new drones will be used only for tactical and emergency calls. They will only record while responding to 911 calls, and they will not be used for randomized surveillance.
So far response times are under two minutes, according to Brookhaven Police.
The aerial team of drones are already in the sky responding to calls for service and the department told CBS46 they are hoping to expand the program to include more drones that can be used on multiple different calls at once.
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