Guelph police have eye in the sky with new drone

Guelph police have a new drone that can use high resolution and thermal cameras and a laser range finder system for a variety of tasks, including the search for missing people.

A new aerial tool is being deployed by the Guelph Police Service.

Guelph police unveiled the remotely piloted aircraft system program Thursday afternoon at the former Turfgrass Institute on Victoria Road South.

The program consists of a highly sophisticated drone that will be used to help police in a variety of situations.

“We see this as being very good in cases of missing person searches and evidence searches,” said Staff Sgt. Mike Davis.

“We’ll also use it for collision reconstruction and may use it for some surveillance and tactical operations.”

The drone is a DJI Matrice M30T equipped with high resolution and thermal cameras, a laser range finder system, and dual speaker/spotlight payloads. It can fly with a maximum height of 400 feet, has a 15-kilometre flight range, and can fly for over 40 minutes.

“It could cover a large area at once,” Davis said. “We’ve had tremendous success in clearing large fields or bush areas very quickly without having officers go into those situations.”

The drone program costs $25,000. That includes the drone and training for the officers.