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Roseville Police Assemble Drone Team To Improve Operations

ROSEVILLE (CBS13) — It's the newest buzz on the police beat in one local city where a drone team has been deployed to help fight crime.

Roseville Police showed off their newest tools on Tuesday. The department is building a new team that has officers all abuzz as they eye the future of law enforcement.

Lt. Jeff Kool says the drones provide a way to enhance public safety.

The department has eight pilots training on a monthly basis for their drone team.

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"We got our certification from the FAA — and it's basically a certification of authorization that allows us to train and fly during operations," Kool said.

The goal is to improve search and rescue operations, find missing people faster, and make crime scene investigations more efficient.

"We can actually use these to capture photographs of a crime scene and create a 3D image after and do all of our measurements of the crime scene after the fact, which definitely will cut down on overtime, [and] it will increase efficiency as far as how long we're at a scene," Kool said.

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Over the last few months, the department has used the technology a handful of times and says it's a game changer.

"Based on certain scenarios, it is definitely safer to get a bird's-eye view or a visual aerial view of a scene before we send in officers," Kool said.

Roseville police have three drones in their arsenal and they're already n the process of buying more including ones with an infrared camera that can help investigators search at night to spot heat sources.

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