TAYLOR (WWJ) -- Something new will soon be seen in the skies over the Taylor, as the Downriver city's police department becomes the first in Michigan to use autonomous flight drones.
Brinc Drones, as part of a five-year, $775,000 plan with the Taylor Police Department, spent last Friday delivering and installing a new drone launch pad and charging station to the roof of the police station on Goddard Road near Pine Street.
According to Taylor Police Chief John Blair, these drones will be used not for general surveillance, but to assist officers responding to calls.
Blair told WWJ Newsradio 950's Dan Jenkins they'll be used in a variety situations.
"Just about anything you could dispatch a police officer on," the chief said. "We could use it on something as simple and mundane as a watermain break. We could have a drone go out there without dispatching an officer. We could have something much more serious such as a shooting, where we could dispatch the drone out to give us an eye in the sky. You know, a large fight, a disturbance somewhere, a lost child — dispatching this drone out there to give us that shot from up above is a tremendous advantage to us."
BRINC Drones – A New Era of Response
Just plug in the address, and the drone will take off from the roof within about 60 seconds and fly to the scene.
"We can smash a window and go inside of a location and search for someone," Blair said. "Those Lemur 2 drones give us full 3D mapping capabilities, so once they're inside of a location they're constantly mapping out so our officers know exactly what's inside and how they look."
Blair said the “Drone First Responder Program" is already being used by police departments on the U.S. West Coast.
The City of Taylor said the program will involve two drones and cover 96% of the community, thanks to the Taylor PD's already strong relationship with Federal Aviation Authority at Detroit Metro Airport. The initial cost of the program is planned to be funded by Federal Forfeiture Justice Capital Outlay funds, but may be adjusted to other sources over the length of the agreement.