If you light off fireworks in Kirkwood this Fourth of July, you might get a visit before an officer ever pulls up to your curb... from a drone with a loudspeaker.
For the first time, the Kirkwood Police Department is putting its drone to work on the holiday's biggest headache: illegal fireworks. "This will be our first year using this particular tool in this fashion," Officer Gary Baldridge tells KMOX. "We're writing the story on our drone program as we go."
Baldridge has been at this more than 20 years, and he says every Fourth plays out the same way. "We are inundated with calls on firework complaints," he says. Officers aren't out hunting for violations; residents are calling to complain. Fireworks are illegal to set off anywhere in St. Louis County, including Kirkwood, and police end up going address-to-address to remind people of that.
Finding those striking the matches has always been the hard part. In years past, an officer would get assigned a complaint and then cruise the neighborhood trying to figure out where the booms were coming from. "It's up to the officer to sit there and play hide and seek with the fireworks shooters," Baldridge says. "Unless there's something in the air, we may not know who's shooting it."
Kirkwood has had the drone for several years and keeps finding new uses for it. "We're a very proactive police department," Baldridge says. "We like to try things out, and if it works great, we'll add it to our repertoire of things to do again. If we find that it wasn't advantageous and it was a waste of time, then we're not going to do it again."
The drone carries a spotlight, a live camera that records, infrared, and a loudspeaker. When the pilots catch someone in the act, they can hit play on a recorded message. It's "a reminder and a warning to please cease your activity," Baldridge says, "and if an officer has to respond, further enforcement action may be taken."
KMOX asked whether the drone could parachute down a ticket. Baldridge says it has no such capability. An actual summons still requires an officer on the ground. The penalty is a fine set by the municipal court.
Kirkwood has "houses sitting right next to houses," which raises the concern. "I don't think anybody wants firework debris in their backyard. It's dangerous to their pets. It's dangerous to your property."
The city is hosting its own professional show at Kirkwood Park.
And one note for some commenters on the department's Facebook page: trying to knock the drone out of the sky is a federal violation, Baldridge says, and police will investigate it as one.
