Vigo cops want eyes in the sky

Nov. 01--The Vigo County's Sheriff Department, along with Vigo County Emergency Management Agency, wants to put eyes in the sky.

On Tuesday, the Vigo County Board of Commissioners approved a letter of support for the two departments to designate drones as public aircraft to obtain federal licenses.

The departments are seeking two federal aircraft licenses for drones, said Maj. Jeff Fox of the sheriff's department.

The first license is for unrestricted air space, while the second is for restricted air space, which includes a 5-mile radius around Terre Haute Regional Airport, Fox said.

"We will make application through the Federal Aviation Administration," Fox told commissioners. Each of the departments must also have licensed pilots for the drones, Fox said.

"We have hired a consulting company to provide us the necessary guidance on applicable policy and procedures and have enlisted the assistance of Indiana State University's Center for Unmanned Systems to ensure that we are in compliance and follow the letter of the law," Fox said.

Policy for the drones, Fox said, include a public notification of using the device.

"We are looking at using a reverse 911 call for the area that we are going to be working in. We want the public to be aware of what is going on in their area. Certainly, there may be (emergency) criminal investigations that we would not be doing that," Fox said.

Additionally, there are certain circumstances, Fox said, where search warrants would be required to use drones.

"We would go through the criminal investigation procedure and obtain a search warrant so that if we deploy the device and gather criminal intelligence, we are within the letter of the law," Fox said.

"We don't want our citizens to feel like it is being used for covert operations," Fox said. "We want to use this as tool to assist public safety, either as a tool in criminal investigations or in response to emergencies, hazardous material spills, things like that."

The drones would be purchased by the two agencies. Fox said the sheriff's department has about $15,000 in federal equity share funds transferred from enforcement seizures to pay for equipment and an additional $14,000 for program development.

"I could see us having more than one drone," Fox said. "I think it will be a program we build into, buying an initial device, then add attachments," Fox said.

The departments still need to determine the type of drone needed, some which can be tethered to a power supply for longer flight time, as well as capable of carrying items such as heat-vision cameras as well as having the ability to deliver material, he said.

ISU assistance

Sam Morgan, director of ISU's Center for Unmanned Systems and Human Capital Development at ISU, said the idea for the Vigo County Sheriff's Department and Vigo EMA initially "is to focus on getting drones for activities that do not require a search warrant, such as search and rescue, three dimensional mapping or photography of a crash site."

ISU conducted a demonstration of drones Tuesday for police and emergency response agencies. Morgan said the flight time for most drones is 20 to 30 minutes, but agencies can swap out batteries, and the change only takes minutes. Also, drones can be tethered to portable generators "like small camping generators, and you can operate for a couple of hours," he said.

However, a tether is limited to 75 to 150 feet, Morgan added.

Drones, Morgan said, have many functions, including flying down a hallway of a building containing a suspected shooter.

"You will never require a search warrant for an active shooter," he said.

ISU will conduct the federally compliant drone pilot training for the sheriff's department and EMA Fox said.

Under a new policy memo from President Donald Trump last week, commercial companies such as Amazon and Google may soon partner with U.S. cities and states to test more self-flying and package delivering drones. Morgan said ISU would seek to join such a partnership, which could also help advance applications for public safety departments statewide.

Under federal law, drones flown by public safety departments are considered by the FAA to be public aircraft. Public agencies, like private drone operators, are required to register drones and comply with FAA restrictions on certain operations.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached 812-231-4204 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter@TribStarHoward.

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