BRICK – The Brick Township Police Department recently acquired a small unmanned aircraft system – also known as a drone – to assist with police investigations, search and rescue missions, security, emergency situations and other important law enforcement initiatives.
The drone was purchased using funding from the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety’s Comprehensive Traffic Safety Grant.
Two traffic safety officers have been trained and licensed to be drone pilots. The officers attended schooling at Eagle View Aviation in Farmingdale and passed a 60-question exam that was administered by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The use of the drone must be authorized by the Brick Township Chief of Police. Officers will follow all provisions as specified in Part 107 of the Federal Aviation Administration Small Unmanned Aircraft Rules and the Law Enforcement Directive covering drones issued by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
The drone will be utilized for the following Law Enforcement purposes:
- Search and Rescue: missing person investigations, amber alerts, silver alerts and other search and rescue missions.
- Scene Documentation: to document a crash scene, crime scene or other major incident scenes.
- Situational Awareness: to assist decision makers in understanding the nature, scale and scope of an incident and for planning an effective response.
- Visual Perspective: to provide an aerial visual perspective to assist law enforcement personnel in providing direction for crowd control, traffic incident management, special circumstances and temporary perimeter security.
- Tactical Deployment: to support the tactical deployment of law enforcement personnel and equipment in emergency situations
The Brick Township Police Department is looking to expand this program in the future to include additional licensed police officers and a drone equipped with night vision capabilities.
