Eye in the Sky - Lyre exclusive

As the Sergeant in charge of the drone program, Shawn Noble presents a class on drones used by the Lakewood Police Department.  There are 12 licensed operators and the drones can operate to a ceiling of 400’ (unless near the McChord Air Field).

“It can be used to help out situation awareness, search and rescue, whether here in town for disabled or autistic or elderly individuals with dementia that have wandered off at nighttime, especially if an elderly dementia person wanders away from the house on a cold night, time’s of the essence.  A lot of the times to try to track them down, and usually they don't go too far, but we can search wood areas and depressions, and we can search a large area a lot quicker than just people trying to search on foot.”

“We have gone all the way up to Mount Rainier and helped search for missing hikers that have been lost up there.”

“We have a computer program where we take a series of photographs, and this computer program stitches those images together to create a model”, in the case of an accident or similar investigation.

The drones are remarkably adept at discerning heat even in smoky situations.

“One of our very first deployments back in 2017” for the Dupont Amtrak derailment.

“One of the drones that we purchased fairly early on, we got grant funded through Pierce County's Department of Emergency Management, and it was a regional asset, and we agreed at that time that basically anybody in the whole county, if they asked us to come, we would come help them. We'd come anyways”

From the time an officer pulls up to the site, how long does it take to deploy? “Well, these are quick. This folds up and goes into the case. I could have this out of the case, depending on where I'm at... I can be in the air in about from the time I get there and step out of my car about two minutes, probably maybe even less.”

Sgt. Noble provides a scenario to use the drones to support officers serving a warrant, one of the deadliest missions an officer can provide.

“This is a search warrant.  You can see the officers that are surrounding this house. This was just an aerial overwatch. They were concerned that people might try to come out the back as they were coming up on approach, so we watched the back of the house.”

In all, the LPD quickly learned to rely on drones, subject to the following stipulations;

a. Situational awareness: To assist decision makers in understanding the nature, scale, and scope of a critical incident such as a Hazmat Spill, Natural, or Man-Made Disaster.

b. Search and Rescue: Assist with missing person investigations, Amber and Silver Alerts, and other search and rescue missions.

c. Tactical Deployment: To help provide situational awareness to support the tactical deployment of Officers and equipment during emergency situations. To the extent possible, this will be done under a judicial search warrant.

d. Crime Scene Investigation: To document, measure, locate, and/or assist in the investigation of crime scenes.

e. Traffic Collision Investigation and Reconstruction: To document, measure, locate, and/or assist in the investigation of vehicle collision scenes.

f. Search Warrant: To collect evidence in a criminal investigation under an approved judicial search warrant.

[Correction; Noble has been with LPD since 2004]