The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
TESTING DRONES
Geauga County public safety officials participate in training exercise
“We’re keeping up with technology. We’ve got to. And this is going to be really helpful.” — Geauga County Chief Deputy Tom Rowan
A group of Geauga County public safety personnel and their instructors turned part of the Geauga County Fairgrounds into an unmanned aerial system test-flight zone April 11.
The group, which was halfway through a weeklong Drone Academy offered to public safety professionals through Cuyahoga
Community College, consisted of six Geauga County Sheriff’s Office personnel and three from the Geauga County Emergency Management Agency.
They all agreed pursuing the licensure necessary to operate these remote aerial assets is a worthwhile endeavor that will benefit not only Geauga County, but Northeast Ohio and
contiguous regions, as well.
“It’s pretty cool to see this process,” said Geauga County Chief Deputy Tom Rowan as the class closed up shop due to foul weather. “We’re keeping up with technology. We’ve got to. And this is going to be really helpful.”
Rowan said he’s glad to see his deputies and the EMA get behind using drones because they’re a way to help keep personnel out of harm’s way and can aid in so many different scenarios.
“You can put these at a fire scene and help the fire department,” he said. “You can drop a payload from them if someone’s stuck on the water or somewhere else we can’t get to them right away. It’s going to be really helpful.”
As UAS technology matures — the drones, themselves, becoming more affordable, lighter, able to spend more time aloft between battery-chargings and the further development of implements they’re able to carry (like infra red cameras, lighting arrays and provisions for carrying payloads), their applications within police, fire and other public safety realms are expanding constantly.
“It’s going to assist with search and rescue, maybe missing kids, maybe grandma or grandpa who
has dementia and walks out the back door into the woods and goes missing,” said Geauga County deputy sheriff Nate Mitchell as the drones were being readied for flight. “It’s also going to help with getting aerial (views) of accident scenes or just crime scenes in general.”
As the nine participants in the course worked together to put the drones through the paces, Mother Nature threw them a curve ball with some wind gusts, rain and, eventually, a rain/ snow mix. So by about 3:30 p.m. organizers called it quits.
That’s not to say the day was a loss, however.
“Oh my God. It went great,” said Tri-C Police Chief Clayton Harris, who spearheads the drone training there and regionally. “What’s even better about what happened today (in terms of the weather), is that I’ll discuss in the classroom that we’re in Northeast Ohio. We need to be prepared for inclement weather. That’s generators and tents and propane heaters... The goal is to be prepared for anything. You can’t predict everything. But you can be prepared, so that when you deploy to a mission, you’re ready to go.”
He said the day’s disposition provided the perfect opportunity to put his classroom presentations into practice.
“This is actually perfect,”
he said as the wintry mix pelted everyone in attendance as they rushed to gather equipment and get to drier spaces. “It homed in on some of the same issues I discuss in class. Now we’re going to talk about drying out the equipment and getting things ready to be deployed again at a moment’s notice. So — yeah — it went great today. Seriously — I couldn’t have paid to have this happen better!”
As more and more public safety agencies get on board with using drones, it’s classes like these that will make it practical for them to be on hand and at the ready, said Willoughby Fire Department Scott Mlakar, who has not only led the charge among Lake County agencies to embrace and apply UAS technology for public safety. He’s also an instructor in the Tri-C program.
“The key really isn’t the hardware. It’s the licenses,” he said, adding that, as more and more personnel become certified to fly these drones, the technology involved becomes more available — and practical — for everything from accident and fire response to search-and-rescue, criminal and tactical applications, just to name a few.”
Online: See more photos from the training exercise at MEDIA.NEWSHERALD.COM