COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho -- Idaho State Police said their drone program is now up and running.
Over the last year, ISP has been placing small drones in the hands of trained troopers across the state to use for investigations. They deploy them roughly three times a month.
Idaho State Police said they use the drones primarily for investigating and mapping crime scenes and bad wrecks. As they've learned, there are other uses too.
"We've had it in a barricade or a hostage-type situation. We deployed it just to get a bird’s eye view of the scene," Idaho State Police Captain John Ganskel said.
For the last year, ISP has been fine tuning its statewide drone program. All six ISP districts now have one and in each district they have two trained pilots. ISP is aware that with new tech, comes new concerns. The agency said that when it deploys a drone, it has to be for a purpose.
"Really, our goal is to get it accepted with the public and put them at ease to the fact that we're going to be using them for positive things. We're very conscious of the expectation of privacy issues that exist out there," Ganskel explained.
Plenty of times, troopers will have to get a search warrant from a judge in order to deploy a drone. So far, they have been pretty effective. Other law enforcement agencies have borrowed ISP drones for investigations as well.
"We anticipate over time, there will be more and more demand," Ganskel said.
The drones are much cheaper and safer than trying to put a trooper in the air in a helicopter.