The UAS team is able to deploy the ability to swiftly search an area safely in a variety of situations such as during a large-scale sporting event, a fire, an individual barricaded inside a building, or a vehicle fleeing a scene. This tool allows responding officers to gather more accurate information as they respond to the scene, which protects both community members and first responders.
The team currently has 10 pilots who are all Part 107 certified and train together monthly, often with other department units such as Traffic, Investigations, Bomb Squad and SWAT. Each team member was selected for the UAS Team based on certain skill levels, such as being an actual pilot, having camera expertise, RC experience, traffic crash knowledge, etc.
The UAS team has 17 different types of Unmanned Vehicles (drones) that are used for incidents such as:
- Search and Rescue
- Missing Persons
- Active Harmers
- Train Derailments
- SWAT
- BOMB Squad
- Accident Reconstruction
- Crime Scene Documentation
- Mapping
- Building Searches
- Major Event Broadcasting
- Structure/Wildland Fires
