Drones seem to be everywhere these days as more individuals and businesses are starting to embrace this remote technology. A drone or unmanned aircraft is any aircraft that is operated without the possibility of direct human intervention from within or on the aircraft. Drones come in many dierent sizes and shapes and are designed to primarily collect data to meet a multitude of dierent tasks and applications.
The practical uses of drones in the working environment are continuing to expand as organizations find that they can eliminate health and safety risks by utilizing this technology to complete potentially dangerous tasks instead of their employees.
Law enforcement agencies have begun using drones in accident investigations, to document the scene faster enabling quicker cleanup times and reducing prolonged traffic delays. With the current availability of advanced remote sensing technologies in the field of law enforcement and crime scene investigations – it allows data to be uploaded in real-time thus improving communication between agents in the field and those in an office monitoring the scene.
Drones integrated with the use of rugged tablets for site investigations also improve the traditional capabilities of mapping the scene, monitoring the progress of the cleanup, and records data accurately so that accidents can be cleaned up faster with trusted data that allows site reconstructionists to accurately put a model together that will stand up in court if needed. Officers are kept safer during this process as they are not involved in taking measurements at the scene.
3 Reasons Drones are one of the Most Promising and Powerful New Technologies:
1. Risk Assessment
When a disaster or accident occurs, drones may be utilized to provide law enforcement with better situational awareness, find survivors in cases of missing person accidents, perform auxiliary analysis of damaged infrastructure, deliver needed supplies and equipment, evacuate casualties, and help extinguish resin cases of disaster situations.
2. Mapping
Law enforcement agencies utilizing drone capabilities, combined with rugged tablets that integrate with mapping software deploy drones to investigate accidents without wasting time or resources. In the past, traffic accidents have taken over an hour or two to clean up because of all the measurements that have to be taken at the scene so the scene can be reconstructed accurately after it has been cleaned up. Utilizing drones to process the scene integrated with a rugged tablet can take less than half the time to map the area. Meanwhile, drones can also help first responders act more effectively on the scene by capturing aerial information. The drones can also be programmed to use a grid-type path and record about 100 photos in two-second intervals. This post-processed data is used to develop an accurate scale map with photos at the scene providing enough data to create a 3D print of the scene.
3. Planning
Drones have long been depicted as optimally suited to perform 3-D missions, often described as dirty, dull, and dangerous. They can give required aerial data in areas or territories considered too risky for people on the ground or for manned aircraft operation. The use of drones with a rugged tablet can also deliver needed supplies and relay Wi-Fi and cellular phone service when communications are needed the most.
The use of aerial drones can provide high-quality maps, imagery, measurements, and models for post-crash investigations. This technology is used to improve safety by reducing secondary crashes and exposure of law enforcers to the hazards of working adjacent to highway traffic. Rugged tablets integrated with the use of drones provide technology that is faster than traditional ground-based measurements and a much better, more comprehensive documentation system, mapping of the scene, and situational analysis, that improves over-all safety of the law enforcement and internal processes.
There is a reduced risk of human error and all parties involved can access the data in real-time thus improving internal communication.