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OCP photo/Deputy Brendan Nienhuis operates the Oceana County Sheriff’s Office new rotary-wing drone.
By Allison Scarbrough, News Editor
HART — The Oceana County Sheriff’s Office recently added a tool to its law enforcement gear that elevates its success in emergency response and investigations.
The department has added a rotary-wing drone and a fixed-wing drone to its tool kit. The rotary drone operates like a helicopter, and the fixed-wing drone functions like a plane, explained Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast. The fixed-wing drone is not in operation yet.
“The rotor-wing drone, which has four propellers, has way more capabilities for our uses,” said Sheriff Mast. “We can use it with a thermal imaging camera to find missing persons, wanted persons hiding from us, even drownings. If someone is in the water, we can use it to help scan or search the water areas. It has a dropper on it, so we can potentially carry a small AED (automated external defibrillator), a life vest, or medication. We can carry and deliver a lot of different things with that dropper. It has a live feed camera system so our operator can see what exactly the camera is looking at. We use it at accident scenes and crime scenes to map them out. It can take a great aerial photo with software systems to help map those scenes. It really cuts down on our time where we used to pull out a tape measure and take measurements of a serious injury or fatal crash scene. Now we map it out with the drone and it’s done in no time.”
OCP photo
The purchase of the $29,800 rotary drone was sparked by community generosity. “There was some money available through the AED purchase, and we received some from the Oceana Community Foundation. By the purchase of this, we’re able to have one on scene in the fraction of the time it used to take us to get one when we had to call one in from Mason County, Muskegon County or a fire department. That time on scene is critical for search and rescue missions and missing person missions. The life saving possibilities and the crime solving possibilities are just huge to be able to deploy this in such a timely fashion.”
Two deputies became licensed law enforcement drone pilots — Brendan Nienhuis and Dale Thompson. Plans are for more deputies to become licensed.
“Searching for lost and missing persons, it has been amazing,” said the sheriff. “For mapping crime scenes, it’s been a wonderful tool that cuts down on tons of man hours that would be required with old-fashioned methods.”
Since the drone was put into service July 2, it has been used in 37 different incidents.
OCP photo
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