An unmanned aerial drone is helping Fairbanks Police officers do their job more accurately, safely and efficiently.
“We are trying to do our job better, and I think having a drone helps us with that goal,” said Fairbanks Police officer Jason Pace. “If we can prevent a civilian from being harmed by putting a drone somewhere, if we can prevent an officer from being harmed, or we can even prevent the suspect from being harmed by putting a drone out and assessing the situation.”
FPD uses a DJI Inspire 1 to help with this goal. They are able to fly the drone over crime scenes, accidents and active situations to give them eyes in the sky.
The main use of the drone is for accident mapping, they use a program called Pix4D to photograph an accident or crime scene in great detail and then create a large top-down photo of the crime scene. Previously officers would use Google Maps and then draw in where parts of the crime scene were. Now, they are able to take an accurate photo of the crime scene shortly after it happens.