Mediaboss Marketing

Cedar Rapids police Investigator Jared Gienger (left) and Officer Antoine Smith on March 23 check the large drone that is being outfitted to assist in the accident reconstruction. The Cedar Rapids Hazardous Device Unit used a grant to buy the drone three years ago. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Cedar Rapids police Investigator Jared Gienger demonstrates how to use the infrared camera mounted on a large drone that is used by the Cedar Rapids Hazardous Device Unit. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Cedar Rapids police Investigator Jared Gienger (left) and Officer Antoine Smith check the large drone thats been used the past three years to examine hazardous devices before officers approach. The drone is being outfitted now to assist in accident reconstruction. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS Drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, have become increasingly popular tools used by police departments and fire departments in Eastern Iowa.

The drones are used for everything from tracking suspects or missing people to investigating bomb threats to helping firefighters see through smoke when fighting a fire.

The Cedar Rapids Fire Department and the Linn County Sheriffs Office, for example, used a drone earlier this month to pinpoint the location of a smoldering fire after a grain elevator exploded at the Archer Daniels Midland plant in southwest Cedar Rapids.

The Decorah Fire Department in northeast Iowa has been using drones since 2014 longer than most departments in the state.

At the time, the city had to get a special certificate to own and pilot a drone because the Federal Aviation Administration hadnt yet created the remote pilot certification process.

Now, all drone pilots must be certified under the FAAs small unmanned aircraft systems rule (part 107). Drone pilots in law enforcement and public safety often have additional training on how to use the drones appropriately in their work.

One reason Decorah firefighters wanted a drone was because of the numerous river rescue calls the department receives about people tubing and canoeing the Upper Iowa River, which lows through the city.

The drones have drastically decreased response times to those calls, according to Zach Kerndt, one of the departments four drone pilots.

The drones give us a much better idea of where people are, generally, because the information we receive from our dispatch center is very vague, he said.

The information we usually get is, they put in at this spot or this bridge, and theyre getting out at this bridge, and theyre somewhere in between.

Having a drone really cuts down on the man-hours it takes to find someone because we can find them with the drone ... and come up with a plan, Kerndt said.

The department has two drones, which are used about 20 times a year, Kerndt said.

The drones also are used during fires and in missing person cases.

Since the drones have infrared cameras, they can see through smoke in a fire and can help firefighters on an aerial truck better aim water on whats burning.

In law enforcement, the devices are often used to help officers get a clear picture from above of a crime scene or crash scene.

The Linn County Sheriffs Office has four drones two large ones, two small ones and nine trained pilots, according to Lt. Dave Beuter.

Its a real-time depiction of the scene, of the environment, whether theres snow on the ground, whether the trees have leaves on them, Beuter said.

Especially with criminal investigations, its nice to have those images from the drone, he said. You can go up in the air, even like 10 feet up in the air, and do an angle shot back into whatever youre looking at. Its a lot better depiction of whats seen than what just a simple photograph does.

Lt. Dave Beuter, Linn County Sheriffs Office

The Sheriffs Office started using the drones in 2017, after Beuter and another lieutenant won a drone at a conference and then sought out training so they could use it.

The Iowa State Patrol started using drones in 2020, when it bought 10 drones. It now has 21 drones, which it primarily uses for crash reconstruction, according to the patrols public information officer

The Cedar Rapids Police Department is currently readying its large drone, bought three years ago with a grant, for use in crash reconstruction.

The department currently employs a FARO 3D scanning system that is positioned around a crash scene and uses lasers to create a 3D reconstruction of the scene.

The drone will speed up that process and also provide photos that can be overlaid on a 3D crash depiction.

The Cedar Rapids Hazardous Devices Unit with team members from public safety departments in Linn County bought the drone three years ago, mainly to examine hazardous devices/bombs from a distance.

Lets say we had an improvised or suspicious device that could be out in an area that, based on some of the initial intelligence that we have, we may want to get a better look at photos of that, said Dan Jabens, commander of the Hazardous Devices Unit.

Instead of sending a person down there to put them in harms way, we would use the drone to get better pictures and allow us to develop a game plan on how we want to mitigate that device, he said.

The drone can carry up to 5 pounds, Jabens said. If an object seems especially suspicious. The drone can carry a mitigation charge over the object to remotely disable it, if its a bomb.

To do a remote reconnaissance on a device somewhere would take hours if we had to work our way around and use traditional camera systems, Jabens said. With this, within a minute or two, we can clearly have a picture of what our device is, what were looking at, and what the best way to mitigate that would be,

The Cedar Rapids Police Department has seven officers trained as drone pilots and hope to train more so the device can be used in additional scenarios.

There are situations where a drone cannot legally be used to the fullest extent of its abilities, according to Jabens, such as using it to view private property.

For example, using a drone to search someones property from above, or to look through someones window, without a warrant likely would violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure.

The departments drone procedure policy states that drones shall not intentionally be used for the purpose of gathering evidence or other information, or to intentionally view, record or transmit images or video around a residence or any other location where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com

Read the original here:
Drones: Public safety officers learn to fly latest technology - The Gazette