KILLEEN, Texas — With drone technology getting better every day, it’s no surprise that law enforcement is reaping the benefits and the Killeen Police Department is no exception.
In fact, the Killeen Police Department has seven drones that they use for a variety of things evidence collection and locating a missing person.
”Sometimes we’ll get a location of where this person was last seen walking or what area they could potentially be in, and we’ll use the drone to get in the air and attempt to locate that person,” said Cpt. Ronnie Supak, captain of Patrol Division and head of the Drone Program for KPD.
They are also being used for theft and burglary prevention.
”Go over the public parking lots and see if we can find people that are attempting to break into cars or committing some other crime.” said Cpt. Supak.
Just like with any other technology, privacy needs to be taken into account when operating the drones.
”There should be a good amount of policies in place so that, it can also respect people's privacy and freedom. In terms of, searching any unwanted places or someone's back yard or something like that,” said Prof. Abhijit Nag, assistant professor of Computer Information Technology at Texas A&M Central Texas.
Policies KPD says they do have in place to protect your privacy unless they have a search warrant or a situation like a suspect hiding in you back yard.”
”We only record for evidence,” said Cpt. Supak. “Which is, we’re chasing that fleeing person or, we’re obtaining that evidence from the air of a crime scene or, working that evidence on a traffic accident.”
KPD says their drone program is much like the helicopter programs if the past with one major difference.
”It’s a huge cost difference to put an eye in the sky to assist us in our job duties to therefore, try and make the public as safe as possible.” said Cpt. Supak.
The maintenance of a helicopter alone can cost over $20-million a year and KPD says they can operate their drones for less than $3,000 a year.
Using drones instead of helicopters is saving the department and taxpayers millions.
