Task Force 1’s drones help local law enforcement and fire departments
Nia Hinson
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Finding missing people is getting easier thanks to an important piece of technology: Drones.
Missouri Task Force 1 has 30 drones under its belt that are used throughout Boone County for various missions. Some of those missions include helping local law enforcement, such as the Boone County Sheriff’s Office.
The department began flying drones in 2017. Recently, they’ve been required every week. According to IT Division director Jason Warzinik, since Jan. 1, the drones have been flown 240 times for 348 miles. Five of those flights included local fire calls and mutual aid callouts.
Boone County Fire Chief Scott Olsen said they’re also frequently used in structure or wildfires to determine where there’s still excessive fire or heat.
“They’re able to allow us to see things that we’ve never seen before unless we had a helicopter at our disposal,” Olsen said. “It gives us ready situational awareness and situational assessment of what’s going on, but it makes a lot of our operations more efficient.”
Brian Leer of the Boone County Sheriff’s Office said the drones have become a vital tool for the sheriff’s office, especially when it comes search and rescue.
“They’re able to go in locations that it would be very difficult to put a person you know? Think terrain,” Leer said. “Some of the parks that we have, they can get up and figure out where these people are and they can hover there.”
Leer said the capabilities of the drones, including being able to speak and hear, along with features such as a spotlight and infrared, are what help make them so effective. Leer also said the number of drones and the ability to switch out batteries and keep surveillance of an area for the department are crucial.
According to Warzinik, the task force’s quadcopters’ flight time maxes out at about 40 minutes, while larger drones with fixed wings can fly for about 60 minutes to an hour and a half.
Leer said that while the drones help deputies do their jobs better. He said search and rescue missions would take them astronomically longer, and they likely wouldn’t be able to find what they’re searching for without the drones.
GPS technology and the ability to map different layers also help deputies when tracking a person on foot. Heat signatures allow them to pinpoint where a person is in the dark, which came in handy in May when two juveniles escaped from the justice center near Prathersville.
Olsen said the drone captured the heat signature from one of the two juveniles, allowing them to locate him 30 feet up in a tree.
“When you see the technology helping us help people and keep people safe and hold others accountable and apprehend criminals and those that have escaped and of that nature, they’re great tools,” Leer said.
Leer said the drones can also be helpful in vehicle crashes where it’s believed someone may have been thrown from the vehicle.
ABC 17 News takes a look at the way these drones help other agencies across the state in a special report airing Thursday after the NBA Finals on KMIZ.