Brunswick Maine Police Department Using Drones to Spots Trespassers on Train Tracks
The Brunswick Police Department in Maine could be the first in the country to use drones in detecting trespassers on railway tracks. These drones will have a detection system says Desiree French, a spokesperson for the railway administration.
The impending plans to extend Amtrak’s Downeaster line (Brunswick) at the northern terminal is underway and if this goes according to plan, the police will have extra work on their hands patrolling the extra mile of tracks. With a drone patrolling the railroad, more miles will be covered in every direction at a fraction of the time it will take to do it on foot or by patrol cars. The drones can quickly detect trespassers and send alerts to officers.
Federal funding will be used to purchase the drones, but the Brunswick police also have some work to do. They have to create a usage policy for the department and draft a deal with federal authorities on how the technology will be used. If everything goes according to plan, the program will be up and running by summer, 2018.
Maine State Police and the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office are agencies that currently use drone technology in their law enforcement activities. The Cumberland sheriff’s office has been waiting for FAA approval for a year now, but the Maine police began its program in August with about 20 missions so far. Most of the missions assisted people in car crashes. With a wider aerial view, the police were able to reconstruct and investigate these incidents.
The Brunswick police drone project will be an extension of existing partnerships with the federal government. It is expected that the police will be able to monitor the tracks for pedestrians, and with the new cameras installed by the Federal Railway Administration, dispatchers would be alerted if something or someone enters the view of these motion-sensing cameras.
Drones are already being used by railways across the country. They are used to inspect equipment and infrastructure at a more affordable rate; and of course, they are much cheaper and effective than a helicopters. I’m sure this is only the beginning and more municipalities will begin to adopt the use of drones for all types of reasons from surveillance to rescue missions and much more.
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