Mobile Mayor Excited About Use of Drones
MOBILE, Ala.
January 17, 2025
By Rick McCann
Drones are commonplace these days used by professional and amateur, photographers, realtors and yes, may emergency first responders.
In recent years, fire and law enforcement agencies have used them for search and rescue missions, dropping life rings to people drowning, getting an eye in the sky during parades, hostage situations and as a first response to many different types of 911 calls.
While drone use by law enforcement has been growing across the country including “docking” them in areas of a city for a quick Birdseye view of an emergency, it’s still a new tool that many emergency responder agencies are not very familiar with.
The Tuscaloosa police are one of the first in the state to use their drones to respond to emergency calls, solve crimes, protect officers and citizens and be part of the first responder team.
While Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson was at the Alabama Big 10 Mayors association meeting, he got a chance to watch a demonstration of what drones are capable of and he says the program is impressive. He said that police there are using drones in so many different situations.
In some emergency calls, drones are being launched to get immediate information before officers arrive.
“They’ll dispatch a drone to be there in a matter of moments to have eyes on it from above, so an officer has an idea of what he’s walking into,” said Stimpson during Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Tuscaloosa Police Department launched the $1.2 million drone program recently and has some drones housed at docking stations across the city, and once a crime is reported, they are deployed to the scene. They can arrive in less than four minutes.
We’re going to be able to have 24-hour coverage with the cyber unit at the Tuscaloosa Police Department as well as 24-hour coverage with the drones a department spokesperson stated.
Simpson said it could help in response times and gathering intel for officers before they arrive at the scene.
Blake Brown, a spokesperson for the Mobile Police Department, said that they do have drones, but they don’t use them as first responders.
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