Police Using Drones: Drone Use During COVID-19
David: Hey everybody, David Plummer, along with my business partner, Michael Ferguson from Aerial Influence. We are talking drones, we are talking police...we are here with our friend, our client, Lieutenant Matt Udelhoven of the Elgin Police Department. And right now, in previous episodes, we've heard him talk about how many call-outs they were getting before COVID-19. Now the whole world has changed. Everything's changed now.
I want to find out how things have changed for you guys. How have things changed for the drone program and for the police department since COVID-19 started?
Lt. Udelhoven: Sure. And you could argue that either way, you could say with the shelter in place, traffic is down, people are inside more, so there statistically aren't as many traffic crashes, however, there are still traffic crashes. And there are some serious ones that we have to go out and do diagramming for. You could say that people are inside. They're not becoming missing or in danger, but there are still some that are going missing or in danger.
So our call-out numbers haven't decreased. They're still relatively the same these last couple of months. We still have the missing persons that we're going out to look for.
But if anything, you could argue, there's more of a need for drones, even now with this pandemic and unprecedented times. We’ve been a part of the COVID-19 DJI program and have been using the Mavic 2 Enterprise drones with not only the spotlight but also the PA system. And when we're talking about social distancing and to not have to put an officer or a first responder in harm's way or in close contact with something, that you could actually send a drone down to have eyes on and speak to a party or a group and tell them to disperse or things of that nature. Drones are a total benefit to this.
David: Yeah. And I know there are a lot of people, because they've been doing this in several cities, who have given a little bit of backlash and people not liking people using drones, but I guess my feeling is...the drone genie's not going back in the bottle. They're here to stay and if we can use them in a way to save a life, I don't care if that means a drone is flying alongside you. If that's going to help save somebody's life down the line, I would think most people would be able to accept that. So it's been interesting.
And how has it been working with DJI with this program? I know you're working with Romeo Durscher.
Lt. Udelhoven: Actually I just emailed Romeo this morning. It seems like I'm constantly thanking him. He's been very, very helpful and easy to work with. I said, “Hey, we’re interested in the program”, and next thing you know, a week or so later, we've got the drones and shortly after that the batteries, and we're in contact every few days. And Romeo and DJI, everybody's been great through this entire program. He's been great every step of the way.
And my agency has seen the benefits from it. We're rolling the three drones that we've been provided presently. They're out constantly, two shifts a day, just kind of at the ready. But proactively we have gone and done site assessments of our hospitals and our COVID-19 testing sites. It's one thing to look at a Google image to say the site is at this hospital, but the Google image is maybe three, four years outdated. They don't show the tents and the setup. Whereas we were just out a day or two ago taking actual footage of what the setup is. Or should this get larger, or if we have traffic concerns and things of that nature, do we have actual updated photo imagery of all the testing sites?
Michael: Yeah, I didn't think about that. That's a great idea because you can pop it up in the air, you get a completely different vantage point from what you're normally looking at.
David: Well, and not only that, but I mean, you could even use a drone indoors. Instead of sending an officer in some place, you could theoretically fly indoors and clear a room, just like you would with the UV lights now that we're seeing.
We just saw a story yesterday about a company that’s attaching UV lights that will kill viruses to indoor drones and flying them inside. It's a really interesting idea. And it's just another way that it can really help save a life. So it's something we're going to be looking at here in the near future as well. But I just thought that was interesting in some of the ways that it's changing. You had another question, Michael?
Michael: Did they give you any stipulations on the DJI COVID-19 drone program? I'm assuming that they didn't really say it has to be used for this, this and this...
Lt. Udelhoven: I hope I don't get in trouble by Romeo for saying this, but he was so friendly and accommodating, he said, “Use these drones and do whatever you’ve got to do with them.” I'd say from day one, he said it was a no-risk deal to fly these things. He said “I just don't want them on the shelf, I want them put to use.” So, you know, we're trying to do our part, whether it's a test flight or to go up and do a sound check on Walton Island or something, just to see if and when we need to do something, or if it's a windy day or whatever, how does the sound work out? And we're doing some sound checks, things like that. Just basically to be at the ready, hoping that we don't need to apply these to a worst case scenario, but it's great to be ready.
Michael: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
David: All right. So that is episode number three. We've got three more episodes to go with Lieutenant Matt Udelhoven of the Elgin Police Department. Thank you so much for being here. Michael, thank you, although you're obligated to be here with me.
Michael: I'm here because Matt's here.
David: Exactly. We’ll see you next time!
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Michael: As always, thank you for reading. We're excited to share the future of drones with you.