Unmanned Aerial Vehicle The latest drone news
WINNEBAGO COUNTY, Ill. (WTVO) — The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office explained that one of the drone’s advantages is the ability to use a thermal camera to find the missing woman in late March.
“Having a tool like this that can essentially see in the dark because of its thermal capabilities, we were able to locate her very quickly,” said Winnebago County Sheriff Department SGT. Steve McCorkle.
McCorkle, a drone pilot for the department, went over how valuable a drone is to help find missing people.
“You know, we can go out on foot with flashlights and we can search as far as we can hike. But it’s going to take some time,” said McCorkle. “And that particular evening, it was in the low twenties. She’d already been out there for about 3 hours. So obviously there was a growing concern for her well-being.”
The drone finds people who go missing on purpose or, in this case, on accident. The woman who was missing suffered from dementia. These technological advances have changed how the department can save people.
“The availability to see objects in the dark is a huge advantage. You know, searching a field during the day, we may have been able to find her on foot pretty quickly, but it was dark,” said McCorkle. “It was [around] 10:00 at night and it was cold. And the area that she was at was very remote.”
Last year, the drone was deployed around 20-30 times. The department is continuing to grow as it becomes a more effective and safer avenue.
Nearly a dozen officers are currently training to become pilots themselves. The hope is to use them more frequently and effectively. Winnebago Sheriff’s drones will help surrounding counties in scouring parades, festivals and missing person efforts.
“It’s a unit that we’re trying to grow,” said McCorkle. “We’ve invested in quite a few units and we’re using them for a variety of different purposes.”
