Portland just joined the ranks of police agencies nationwide that are turning to drones to enhance their criminal enforcement operations.  Last week, the city council voted to endorse a pilot drone program that will allow the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) to deploy drones to enhance their crime scene analyses and to investigate hazardous waste spills.

Other law enforcement agencies have realized enormous benefits from deploying drones in this fashion.  For example, drones can fly to the scene of an accident or shooting even before police units arrive; they can film or photograph quickly from angles unavailable to traditional field investigators; and they can return to police headquarters within minutes to begin analyzing the evidence while officers are still at the scene interviewing witnesses and piecing together clues.

Thanks to enhanced drone surveillance, criminal suspects can be identified, pursued, apprehended and put behind bars faster to protect public safety.

Drones are also important force multipliers when it comes to investigating hazardous waste spills.  Field inspectors face risks of exposure to dangerous toxic chemicals and must prepare themselves with proper safety suits and equipment, not knowing what they might encounter on site.  Drones can survey the entire area and assess possible danger to local residents and water supplies.  Properly equipped, they can also collect soil, water or plant samples for further testing in advance of field inspection teams.  Drones can also broadcast via loudspeaker warnings to local residents to steer clear of the contaminated area, or even to evacuate their homes and offices, if necessary.

Portland’s Police Bureau hasn’t yet decided how many drones to purchase or how exactly to deploy them.  But the PPB won’t have to start from scratch.  A number of other law enforcement agencies in Oregon have worked with drones for some time – with great success.

For example, the police department of Bend, OR, located in the center of the state, currently operates a wide assortment of drones with varying capabilities and payloads.  Some are used for crime scene mapping but others are equipped to chase criminal suspects or locate missing persons, often at night.  The pursuit drones come with special thermal imaging cameras and sensors that can home in on persons using their heat signature alone.

In an incident last December, a DUI suspect fled the scene and Bend police sent a drone out to search for her.  The drone found her hiding in a wooded area in less than an hour and convinced her to surrender peacefully

Other Bend police drones are capable of breaking through locked doors and flying indoors in support of SWAT teams seeking to resolve hostage situations.  The drones can communicate directly with hostage-takers to convince them to release their hostages and to surrender peacefully.  When necessary, these same drones can drop smoke grenades or explosive devices to facilitate SWAT team entry.

“[Drones] give us a lot of situational awareness, allow command to make really good decisions, and kind of see the area before we send officers,” Bend Community Service Officer Tim Izo says.

Bend police have just two full-time drone operators and a small technical support team.  All have attended a basic UAS school and have passed the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) UAS flight standard.  Portland police plan to send their lone drone operator through the same drone training program when their pilot program formally commences later this spring.

Other Oregon police agencies equipped with drones include the Oregon State Police Department based in Salem (with 3 drones as of 2018) and the Sheriff’s Office in DeSchutes.  All told, more than 30 law enforcement agencies in the state deploy drones in a variety of public safety missions, according to the Center for the Study of the Drone at New York’s Bard College.