Sudbury police looks to add drone to its fleet
Police chief says unmaned vehicle would help with missing person investigations and other probes
The Chief of Police in Sudbury says adding a drone to the force's fleet would save both time and money.
On Wednesday, Sudbury's Police Services Board approved an application to request $1.45 million in funding from the Ministry of Community, Safety and Correctional Services for a number of upgrades to the force — the drone being part of that request.
"They allow us to go over top of a scene," Chief Paul Pedersen said of the unmanned vehicles.
"Imagine a car accident scene or a crime scene, take pictures of it, map it out and give that information back to our investigators in a matter of minutes," he continued.
In addition to helping map crash or crime scenes, Pedersen said a drone would also help with efforts like missing persons investigations.
At this point, Pedersen said there's no indication how much the equipment would cost, only that, if the request to the province is granted, that the Greater Sudbury Police Service would pay a portion of the price tag.
"It depends on the specifications of the piece of equipment that we want to purchase," he said.
"It can be anywhere from a thousand dollars and it'll break in the wind, to hundreds of thousands of dollars and it can fly in a storm."
Pedersen said it's too early to say if or when the unmanned vehicle would be flying in Sudbury's skies.
"It's a ways away still," he said.