ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – The St. Charles County emergency agencies are teaming up in an effort to enhance the capabilities of county drones through a regional approach to combat crimes or help victims.
“Kind of looking to grow and expand it, regionalize it within our county, cooperate with all the other police departments and our ambulance district to enhance our capabilities,” Police Chief Kurt Frisz said. “It’s pooling resources to make it cost-effective…so that if another agency needs our help, they know how we’re going to operate and vice versa.”
The effort would be especially valuable to small agencies, according to Director of Technology of St. Charles County Ambulance District John Yeast.
“Really just bring all the resources together to small departments that may not have as many pilots or as many drones,” he said. “If we had a regional response unit, we could… provide a quicker, wider capability response.”
The drones have a number of abilities, including a zoom camera, thermal capabilities, speakers for announcements, and a spotlight.
There is still a stack of paper work to be looked over, but officials hope to have the regional drone setup complete and running by the end of the year.
Comments are closed.