Meet Oceanside police's newest member: drone first responder
OCEANSIDE, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) -- The Oceanside Police Department has added a new first responder to its team, a drone that can fly 45 miles an hour.
The Oceanside City Council approved the 13-month pilot program which started this month. The drone has already been able to respond to 10 to 15 calls for service a day since it launched on Aug. 8.
“It’s very exciting for us providing a service to our community that I think is essential,” said Chief Taurino Valdovinos. “Our drone can respond to that call for service and provide that intelligence to our officers who are responding in vehicles or on foot.”
The chief assures the drone will not conduct random surveillance and only be used for calls to service in downtown Oceanside from Wednesday through Saturday. A flight log accessible to the public can be found through the department’s website.
“On the way to a call, cameras will be facing up and as a soon as they get there they’ll begin recording. So we have policies and procedures in place,” Valdovino said.
There are 14 officer pilots who will man the drone and it will be housed on the rooftop of Oceanside’s City Hall. Valdovinos says with staffing cuts and commute times getting longer for officers to arrive on a scene, the drone is a game changer and a force multiplier.
In one case, he says the drone has already helped apprehend a burglary suspect and is being used to respond to calls from burglary to even fires in the event it’s an arson.
