Five drones
Metro purchased five drones from Yuneec for $15,000.
Officer David Martel, Metro’s small unmanned aerial system program manager, said that figure includes all of the drone equipment, such as blades, batteries and chargers.
He said it took the department three years to get everything in place to be able to have drones, including developing internal drone handling polices.
Martel estimated the drones arrived Sept. 27, just days before the Oct. 1 Las Vegas shooting.
The five drones are spread across three of Metro’s units: crime scene investigation, fatal and armor. tactically poor situation to be turned into a tactically superior situation,” Wallace said.
A while out
Nevada is one of five states that ban the use of weaponized drones — North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont and Wisconsin are the others, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Two others, Maine and Virginia, ban law enforcement from using them altogether, according to the organization.
The Nevada law prohibits a drone from being “weaponized” and makes it unlawful for a person to operate “a weaponized unmanned aerial vehicle.” Violators can be found guilty of a category D felony.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval told the Review-journal in early December that weaponizing drones is “something that Metro should look at.”
“We should take advantage of all advances in technology to make surethatpeopleareassafeasthey possibly can be,” Sandoval said, adding that weaponizing drones is something he would like to discuss further.
Martel said equipping a drone with temporary blinding lights, tear gas or smoke canisters falls into a gray area.
Are those considered weapons or tools? The Nevada law does not define what constitutes a weapon.
North Dakota is the only state that allows police to use weaponized drones but limits the use to “less lethal” weapons such as stun guns.
There are currently no federal regulations against owning an armed drone.
Contact Nicole Raz at nraz@ reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @Journalistnikki on Twitter.