The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is going to use buildings in the city as launchpads for their drones at times of need and for routine operations. Similar operations have already been going on for a while, with the department expanding its use of surveillance drones.
The news was confirmed by the Metropolitan Police during a press conference on Wednesday, with the agency outlining how it would use cutting-edge technology to keep residents and guests of the city safer.
The Eye-in-the-Sky Is Redefined
LMVPD assistant sheriff Dori Koren said that this is another step the department has taken in strengthening its policing and ensuring that it utilizes every possible technological avenue to protect people on the streets.
Already, the drone surveillance has been paying off with 169 occasions in which drones have helped locate suspects since last October. Drone operators will be carrying out frequent flights in a bid to ensure that they look for potential suspicious activity and act as a preventative measure against petty and more serious crime.
Adapted from the casino gaming floors’ “eye-in-the-sky,” the new technology is utilized to provide constant surveillance on critical areas, help alleviate workload, and ensure that people are, on the whole, better protected. So far, Koren has said, there have been 1,100 missions, with 386 arrests carried out since the first time the LVMPD deployed its drones.
Drones Save Lives, Time, and Resources
Drones can also help with other tasks, too. Sometimes signals ought to be checked out by officers, but drones can save time and alert policemen about entering potentially dangerous locations, saving resources and manpower, not to mention lives.
Right now, the police use 13 different such locations to launch drones from and have aptly named them sky ports.