JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office announced the launch of its Drone First Response Program on Wednesday.
In addition to the program, the state of Florida has granted Jacksonville $610,000 for 36 new Eagle Eye drones.
“This is the only drone program in the entire state of Florida in this year’s budget that survived the governor’s veto review,” said State Representative Wyman Duggan. “Because when a sheriff like TK Waters has a track record like the one that he has, and he tells you he needs a tool, you get him that too.”
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Sheriff T.K. Waters says the drones provide faster response times and real-time intelligence before officers arrive on scene, as well as assist Jacksonville Fire and Rescue with recovering evidence.
Vic Micolucci with JSO says they now have two new DFR docks with 25 interior drones, 10 exterior drones and one fixed-wing mapping drone.
“We want to educate the community about this technology and how it’s going to help solve cases and ultimately save some lives here,” Micolucci said.
JSO’s presentation showed several real-life DFR success stories. One involved officers quickly locating a missing teen with autism before he got to a nearby body of water, where JSO said he appeared to be headed.
“We all know individuals with autism; they can be drawn to water,” said JSO Chief of Technology Chris King. “We’ve seen cases across our city where individuals with autism get to that body of water, and we’ve, unfortunately, recovered that body from the water, and we have to report the bad news to the parents. We hate to do that kind of stuff, so this was a fantastic outcome.”
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Another scenario showed officers pursuing a shooting suspect after they pre-planned a roadblock. Once the suspect fled his car, a drone was able to follow the suspect and capture footage of him throwing his gun into the water, saving Jacksonville’s Dive Team ample time in recovering evidence.
Since the program launched last month, JSO says they’ve used drones for 211 calls, resulting in 29 suspects being taken into custody. They also say they were able to clear the scene of eight of those calls prior to officers responding. In fact, in 61% of those calls, the drones were over the scene before officers had arrived.
JSO says the drones can be at a scene in as little as 40 seconds. They would not reveal the location of all of the drones, but say they are in the back of some patrol cars, which are located all over the city.
For anyone worried about video surveillance, Waters’ message is clear.
“Unless you’re a criminal, you don’t have an issue,” Waters said. “And the people that are involved in criminal activity, they do have a lot to worry about because this is going to make it more difficult.”
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Waters says the advantages to the program vastly outweigh concerns.
“It’s difficult going into a house where that’s a burglary or potentially an armed burglary, and you have to go in there and not know what you’re looking at, not know what’s going to be there when you arrive,” Waters said. “I believe that a lot of those folks may be concerned because they don’t really understand it, and hopefully this helps people understand.”
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