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Article by Paula Gomes, Tennessee Conservative News –
Police drones have begun handling some incidents without need for an officer response in Chattanooga and Mt. Juliet Police Department (MJPD) is in its testing and implementation phase with their Drone as a First Responder (DFR) program.
It’s been approximately six weeks since the Chattanooga Police Department launched their Drone First Responder pilot program in late August.
Since then, the city’s two drones have been dispatched almost a 1,000 times to emergency calls and have handled some incidents without the need for an officer to respond, about 4 percent of all drone deployments.
In 188 of the deployments, the drone was the first responder on the scene.
Most calls are non-emergencies or situations where a drone clarifies information before officers are called to assist. In the instances where a call was resolved without any human interaction, it was something like reported debris in the roadway which was then moved by the time the drone arrived on the scene.
Officials have spoken about how the drones may reduce strain on police manpower and Chattanooga Police Chief John Chambers has called them a “force multiplier.”
Operating out of the city’s fire stations 4 and 9, the two police drones are dispatched by officers out of the Real Time Intelligence Center.
Officers assess situations through live video that the drones send back to the center.
The drones operate within a 3-mile radius of their stations, having been authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration with the location where they are docked selected based on where violent crime is most prevalent.
As well as providing preliminary emergency information to police, the drones can also assist in finding missing persons, with disaster assessment, and other necessary operations when lives may be on the line. Examples include situations where subjects are barricaded, crash scenes, suspected explosive devices, locating suspects who are fleeing authorities, and more.
Both Chattanooga and Mt. Juliet’s police departments have policies in place so that the drones cannot be used for routine surveillance. All flights are mapped on public dashboards.
According to the city of Mt. Juliet, the DFR program “is operated in a manner that respects constitutional rights, follows all applicable laws, and complies with FAA regulations.”
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About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
