Do Police hire drone pilots?

[jaysmithtechtv]

I know there are Police drone pilots, but are those pilots hired by the Police, or are they simply Policemen trained to fly drones?

 

[DanMan32]

Probably both depending on need and budget. With more people getting into the hobby, it would only take getting a 107 for an officer that flies a drone as a hobby to be able to use it on the job, and odds are that someone in the department flies one as a hobby.

 

[bumper]

As a former cop (Oakland, CA, 70's) way before drones, I can still assure you that police departments would not hire non-sworn members to fly drones for police work. It's easy enough to train an officer to fly drones. By comparison the training one goes through to become and officer entails months in the academy and more riding with a field training officer on the street. Drone flying would be incidental to the officer's overall duty.

 

[Electromen]

All of the Police Departments in my area, both large and small, own Drones.

 

[dozzn]

I know there are Police drone pilots, but are those pilots hired by the Police, or are they simply Policemen trained to fly drones?

I suspect they probably hire someone to train the police officers to operate the drones. Especially something like a Matrice 300.

 

[Corsair415]

Funny, I just saw a video on YouTube titled “how to price jobs for the police department.” It’s a few years old, but it might give you some useful info.

 

[DanMan32]

Many departments hire civilian consultants, why couldn't a drone pilot be one for non-hazardous situations? I admit having a pilot be an officer would be more flexible.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Our local police department has used them for search and rescue.

 

[Captain Lou]

Just recently here in the Orlando area a missing woman’s body/car was found due to the help from Drone pilots .. unfortunately it was to late and the woman’s car was found in a retention pond ?... but sheriff department did ask for help in this ... I think it was a volunteer operation... and had to be licensed....

 

[unionglzr]

I know there are Police drone pilots, but are those pilots hired by the Police, or are they simply Policemen trained to fly drones?

I would think they are just trained cops.....plus a cadet prospect would benefit from being 107

 

[Vic Moss]

As you can see from answers here, it totally depends on the agency. Some will, some won't. Check with your local law enforcement agency.

 

[crlmjohnson]

I think as a police officer you do not need to have a faa commercial uas license to fly. But it would be nice. but remember on the test one of the questions...public, COA, and search and rescue teams are allowed to used a drones. they only need to know the rules and how to fly the drone.
So that is why most police departments used their on officers and train them on their drones. I know several officers, state, local, and federal. also I am part of a search and rescue team in Alabama.

 

[Vic Moss]

I think as a police officer you do not need to have a faa commercial uas license to fly. But it would be nice. but remember on the test one of the questions...public, COA, and search and rescue teams are allowed to used a drones. they only need to know the rules and how to fly the drone.
So that is why most police departments used their on officers and train them on their drones. I know several officers, state, local, and federal. also I am part of a search and rescue team in Alabama.

That's both correct and incorrect.

Some agencies have a Public COA, and they self-certify their officers.

But most nowadays require their drone pilots of have 107. It's easier to accomplish, and they can apply for emergency COAs and get preferential treatment for waivers and authorizations.

Every agency I know of or work with have 107 pilots.

 

[Cw4bray]

From a taxpayer point of view, it makes tremendous sense to employee contract pilots. The year, I've owned my MM, I've crashed numerous times doing - really - really dumb stuff. I'm sure, "when pigs fly" they do dumb stuff also. The difference is; the FLIR matrice might cost $50K with spares. I spent $400. and fixed it with $9.oo worth of blades. When police learn from their mistakes, the taxpayers suffer unless the department chief is intelligent enough to avoid self insuring. Then the drone officer moves to the swat team and the chief needs to train another pilot officer and replace$ another matrice$ during the training process. Then the new officer moves to the dive team and the chief replaces him with the rookie cop and the chief needs to replace another Matrice and FLIR $. Then the rookie moves to the suburbs and .... more $ training.
Some departments have union issues, similar to Hollywood, if you're not a SAG member your not allowed on set. I can't turn on the TV without seeing a drone shot anymore ! Police academy accreditation shouldn't be a prerequisite, but it is, that's why we have specialty occupations the true sign of a professional.
Another problem, how many potential contract pilots have the type of FLIR needed for SAR ? Even a medium to large sized town would have resource issues.

 

[Flying eye]

I know there are Police drone pilots, but are those pilots hired by the Police, or are they simply Policemen trained to fly drones?

I was told by an officer that they have their own.

 

[oceanreef5208]

All of the Police Departments in my area, both large and small, own Drones.

 

[thewishy]

My force in the UK have a Mavic 2 Enterprise in the boot of the road division cars (Generally the faster cars) and have these officers trained. They'll use for quick response issues like a suspect running off and is hiding. Massive saving over launching the police helicopter.

When they have an incident which needs more drones, endurance beyond a couple Mavic 2 and a couple spare batteries, etc (Example, missing person, heath fires) then they get volunteers from the local search and rescue organisation in.

 

[JarinW]

I'm a UAS pilot for my agency. We train our officers in-house to operate them, not contract out. We are all Part 107.

 

[tdowler]

Locally, our small town (population 29,000) police department has a drone and a couple of officers on staff that fly it. I'm not sure whether our county sheriff's department has a drone or not but I suspect that they do.

I've never heard of any local civilians being asked to assist law enforcement with their drones but perhaps they have a Part 107 contact or group that assists.

An state-wide organization I'm a member of has a SAR team. We've assisted in some efforts that utilized drones. Without a 107, I'm grounded.