PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is pursuing a $47,000 state grant to buy a “technologically advanced” drone that will “significantly enhance” the county’s drone program.
Clallam County commissioners heard a presentation on the proposal during their Monday work session.
“The one we are asking to get has … I can’t even put into words how much better the infrared and the night vision is on it, which would help with search and rescue especially,” said Civil Deputy Nelson Morgan, one of the sheriff’s office’s two certified drone operators.
Chief Criminal Deputy Amy Bundy said: “Presently, we have two certified drone operators. With the addition of another drone, we are hoping to get two additional operators. We have two different types of drones that we can deploy right now and they both have different capabilities.”
One of the most recent applications of the sheriff’s office’s drones was after the July 18 explosion of a home on June Place in Sequim.
“We were able to deploy both our drones and get two different types of views of the damage of that tragedy,” she said.
According to a staff memo to the commissioners, the Skycatch Explore2 would allow for close-range surveillance, investigating armed and dangerous suspects, hazard threat assessments, search and rescue, crime scene photography, traffic collision reconstruction, serving high-risk warrants and fugitive apprehension.
“This device has the capacity to increase deputy safety, aid in search and rescue operations, disaster recovery, conduct damage assessments after a disaster, and aid in traffic collision investigation and crime scene documentation,” the memo said.
“Currently, the drones we have are small,” Morgan told commissioners. “They don’t have the capability to carry a very big payload, which means we are limited on cameras, which is our main thing for the drone is search and rescue, standoffs where we want the drone as overwatch.
“The camera is going to be a big issue for that,” he continued.
Bundy said the new drone would have increased operating time, almost doubling the time needed before changing the battery.
“You can do hot swap battery changes, meaning you don’t have to turn off the drone to change out the batteries,” Bundy added.
The new drone would bring the sheriff’s office’s fleet to three, Bundy said, adding the current two would remain in service if they were operable.
She said video footage from the drones would be subject to the same public records request rules as bodycam video footage.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at brian.gawley@soundpublishing.com.
