When a man suspected of firing shots at his family barricaded himself inside his Pittsburg home last Friday, police sent up their other set of eyes — a drone with high-definition video — to survey the situation, keeping officers out of harm’s way and gathering information to help them plan their moves.
The drama ended when the suspect, identified as 58-year-old Ronald Ball, walked out of the School Street home after five hours and was taken into custody. No one was injured, and police attribute that in part to remote-controlled drones.
“We were able to use the drones to determine where the doors and windows were in the backyard to relay that to the SWAT team so they could make decisions about how they were going to do the SWAT operation,” said Detective Nicholas Law, who heads the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle program …
Government Technology | July 22, 2019
