6 drones in Lake Norman town to help police respond to crimes and traffic snarls
The Mooresville Police Department unveiled a drone “first responder” program Wednesday, with six drones that get “eyes to the scene” of traffic snarls and crimes faster than a patrol car, Police Chief Ron Campurciani said.
The drones can dart to incidents in a 3.5-mile radius at 55 mph, providing “aerial coverage and critical support” before officers and first responders arrive, Campurciani said at a news conference at police headquarters.
Police deployed a drone to find and hover above a driver who became lost in the late January monster snow storm, the chief said.
Six members of the department are fully trained to operate the drones, in daylight for now, Assistant Police Chief Joseph Cooke said, with 15 to 17 in training, he said. “But the system itself is ready to go,” Campurciani said.
‘’We’re going to be an airline”
The program will cost $300,000 a year, the chief said.
“The way these systems work, literally, the Mooresville Police Department is going to be an airline pretty much, what with all the requirements we have to meet through the FAA,” he said. “That’s not like an exaggeration. We’re really acting like an airline.”
The department launched a drone during the news conference. The size of a backpack, the drone sounded like the distant buzz of a swarm of mosquitoes 100 feet above the gathered TV cameras. It could barely be heard as it traveled to the nearby Mooresville Golf Club and back.
While the drone can soar 400 feet high, Campurciani expects “200 feet to be our sweet spot.”
He said the Winston-Salem Police Department and Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office have similar programs in the state, while the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department plans to have a program as well. The CMPD SWAT team currently uses drones, and Police Chief Estella Patterson said she intends to expand their use.
Drones are critical as Mooresville’s population and borders expand, Campurciani said.
Drones get GPS coordinates from police dispatch system
Three drones will launch from the roof of the police department at U.S. 21 and Brawley School Road/West Wilson Avenue. The others are located at the former police department, which now houses other town departments, at N.C. 150 (East Plaza Drive) and N.C. 3.
The program relies on GPS coordinates from the department’s Computer-Aided Dispatch system, which manages 911 calls, logs incident details and coordinates response efforts, Campurciani said. Radar is used to detect and avoid other aircraft, he said.
Lest the public thinks the drones will snoop on their homes, the program promotes transparency by automatically tracking and logging drone activity in a publicly available portal, the Mooresville Flight Dashboard, the chief said.
The dashboard displays real-time data on the number of calls, average response times, types of calls and visual flight plans that track each drone’s path, he said.