VIDEO: Regional Police unveil their new drone (UPDATE)
Posted Sep 12, 2018 06:33:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new eye in the sky for Regional Police.
Their new remotely piloted vehicle, or drone — or the force's name for it, the “Aeron Skyranger” — will be in operation full-time starting Thursday.
Regional Police Chief Brian Larkin says it'll help taking detailed, accurate photos and video for police investigations such as crashes, missing persons cases, searching for a suspect, evidence and even eyeing K9 tracks.
It also has a couple different cameras, one of them with infrared technology to investigate after dark.
Larkin adds it'll help cut down the time of a road closure for a fatal collision significantly: from an average of six hours, to as low as 45 minutes.
“It has software that goes up, it takes photos of the scene, it calculates measurements,” he said, “It does a lot more.”
And he predicts within 12 months, “we'll actually exceed our return on investment.”
There are five officers trained with the new technology, and a Privacy Impact Assessment has also been completed, ensuring they will follow recommendations from the Privacy Commissioner at all times.
Larkin says that's important in insuring the public knows any use will be for lawful policing.
“We're not just going to push this thing up in a community and take pictures, that's not the use of it,” he said.
Larkin adds we're in a world where people are on-camera more often than ever before, including citizens who record police activity as well.
“From a digital evidence perspective, I think we're in interesting times,” he said, “And we want to make sure that we make those interesting times lawful, within privacy legislation, but also transparent to the public so they know what we're doing.”
Check the video below for a full demonstration of the drone in action.
