WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — The Wheat Ridge Police Department is now using drones on various calls as an extra tool to enhance safety.
“Every call in every case is an opportunity to say, ‘Does it make sense to get a drone involved?’” said Public Information Officer Alex Rose.
On Monday, July 8, officers responded to a burglary call after a maintenance worker reported seeing an individual break into an unoccupied apartment.
Instead of sending officers inside, they used it as an opportunity to deploy one of the department’s drones to scope out the scene.
Inside, they discovered a man sleeping in a closet along with a dog. After removing that dog, police safely took the man into custody.
“Every call is a different opportunity for us to kind of to push what we know about how helpful this tool can be for us as an extension for law enforcement,” said Rose.
He said the department has been using the drones since April.
Not only are they enhancing officer safety, but the safety of everyone officers come across on the job.
“I’d much rather have a suspect shoot a drone than one of our people. Also, if the suspect fires at the drone, drone is not going to fire back at that suspect. So, in a sense, it's also keeping that suspect safe,” explained Rose.
Wheat Ridge PD has eight FAA-trained pilots who fly to piece together car crash investigations and even help find missing people.
With this type of technology, Rose understands there are privacy concerns.
But he wants the public to know that drones are being used to enhance safety.
“We’re using this as an extension of our job as law enforcement officers, and we are not going to be going out of our way to basically spy on you in your backyard,” said Rose.
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