7 hours ago
Taylor police unveil department's first autonomous flight drones
Taylor police said they're set to become Michigan's first department with autonomous flight drones, a move they hope will improve officer safety and response call times.
"We can send this out to give us an eye in the sky, a huge advantage to our officers responding and to those who are on scene," said Taylor Police Chief John Blair.
The drone's launchpad is on top of the department's headquarters on Goddard Road.
"When we get a 911 call, what we do is we drop a pin on a map where that call is located at and send a signal to activate the drone. It takes about 60 seconds to activate, and then it goes to a predetermined altitude and autonomously flies to that location," said Lieutenant Jeff Adamisin.
As the drone flies, it's gathering information about the scene and other responders to give police a fuller picture of what's going on. Devin Kachar, who was paralyzed after being shot in the line of duty in Detroit three years ago, said a tool like this will improve officers' safety on the job.
"A device like that, that doesn't have to, you know, worry about getting hurt or injured in the line of duty," he said. "it's just a material thing that can be replaced it's nice to know those are up there helping you, getting you maybe different images increasing the safety of what you're doing every day in your job."
Adamision and Blair said the drone won't be used for surveillance and is meant to help create a more nimble response for whatever police respond to.
"A timesaver, officer safety, citizen safety, citizen safety all rolled up into one," said Blair.
