General Discussion

Chris,

There are several considerations when it comes to issuing drones.

What the drones will be used for matters. If the drone will be used for something you know about in advance, like an event in your city, or a crime scene or fatal crash that you've been requested for, it could potentially be kept in a cabinet and checked out. If the drone will be used for patrol work, such as a drone in a trunk setup, it won't do any good in a cabinet when someone is actively fleeing from a traffic stop into the woods.

Another consideration is what I refer to as the "pool" or "extra car" phenomenon. Whatever you call them at your agency, think about how well the cars are taken care of that are not assigned to an individual. Now translate that to a drone that needs to have batteries charged and be airworthy. You're likely to open the case and find unexplained damage to the drone, dead batteries, or a missing micro SD card.

Budget is your final consideration. If your agency doesn't want to invest in new technology or simply can't afford multiple drones you're going to have to adopt either a rotational system where the person with the drone is on callout or the drone is left in a cabinet to be retrieved when needed.

Our agency started with fewer drones than pilots and doing mostly crime scene documentation, so checking the drone out worked initially. As the department realized the value of this tool, we were able to purchase additional drones and assign them to individuals who were responsible for their condition. For the most part now, all crime scene and SWAT pilots have drones assigned to them. Due to the cost, our larger drones used for events are moved from person to person based on need, rather than being assigned to an individual.