In the past, a silent alarm meant police officers rushing into a dark, unknown situation. It was a coin toss of danger.
Now, as Orland Park and other communities across the Southland are implementing or considering implementing the Drone as First Responder program, drone pilots (dispatchers and officers) can have “eyes on scene” before police officers or firefighters step even one foot into a potentially dangerous or even deadly situation.
Orland Park Police Chief Ercole Rossi and BRINC Customer Success Manager Bobby Lemon gave a presentation Monday to some 50 members of various south and southwest suburban law enforcement agencies on how the village’s new drone program is being used to assist the village’s police department.
“The drones truly are our eyes in the sky,” said Rossi, who added that the village’s police department launched its first drone last month and has already used it multiple times. The village is looking at purchasing several more. Each drone and the annual cost to operate and maintain it is around $75,000.
Rossi said the drones can be used in multiple situations. For example, he said, if there is a robbery, the department can get a drone up and deployed in seconds with a touch of a button and have eyes on what is happening almost immediately. Dispatchers can provide feedback to the responding officers.
“This is another tool in our toolbox,” he said.
Mayor Jim Dodge, who attended the presentation, said the drone program isn’t just a technological marvel; it is a “testament to the future of policing—smarter, safer, and more efficient.”
Police officials demonstrated how the two-pound drone can take off from its charged docking station and lift straight up 200 feet and fan out across the sky at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour.
Whether searching for kids who have wandered away from home or school or searching for bad guys, these new aerial tools are popping up in police and fire departments across the country.
Nearby Palos Heights and Oak Lawn police also have their own drone programs.
BRINC’s Lemon called the drone – with its speed and aerial vantage point – the “ultimate eye in the sky.”