In June 2022, the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office embarked on a mission to integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into their law enforcement operations to give them an eye in the sky. Two lieutenants, Travis Aleff and Kyle Stotzheim, were tasked with spearheading the initiative, working “non-stop” for half a year to establish a fully operational drone team with 13 FAA-certified pilots.
Initially there were a lot of questions about the program’s cost-effectiveness and whether the investment in drones would yield tangible benefits.
“It’s a huge dollar sign, and then it’s like, if we’re not going to get anything out of this, is it worth it? I think that quickly was addressed just by individual calls and outcomes of those calls because of the drone,” said Aleff. “Just solely, officer safety — when you look at that aspect of it alone, that’s huge.”
To understand the real-world impact of drones in law enforcement, we requested examples from the sheriff’s office, complete with video footage. They provided three compelling cases, each demonstrating a different facet of how UAVs can revolutionize police work and enhance public safety.
DRONES AS A LIFELINE: ENHANCING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSE
Responding to mental health crises safely and effectively has long been a challenge for governments, further compounded by staffing shortages in both law enforcement and mental health sectors.
ENHANCING EFFICIENCY AND SAFETY IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
In an era where many law enforcement agencies are grappling with shrinking manpower, drones offer a powerful solution to augment their capabilities. By providing a bird’s-eye view and rapid situational awareness, drones help officers locate suspects, assess risks and respond to incidents more efficiently and safely.
In another example of how drones enhance operational efficiency, Manitowoc sheriff’s deputies responded to a call about a reckless driver who, upon being spotted by a lieutenant, sped away and ultimately crashed their vehicle.
Watch the video below to see how the department used a drone with thermal capabilities to resolve the situation.
“I would say it’s a huge benefit to us just being able to identify different objects because of the clarity of the camera,” said Stotzheim. “Officer safety is the biggest thing that I think is beneficial to this type of situation, and using the drone technology we’re effectively doing the same job we would have done years ago, just in a safer manner because we can see what we’re walking into, or at least the drone can see and communicate what they’re walking into.”
This enhanced situational awareness is especially crucial when responding to domestic calls, where emotions run high and the potential for violence is significant. In one instance, the sheriff’s office responded to a call from a woman with a restraining order against a man who had unexpectedly arrived where she was located. Deputies arrived to locate the man.
Watch the video below to see how a drone helped resolve the tense situation.
“When I got hired I definitely didn’t expect drones to be this big of a tool for us, and just with the number of times that we’ve used them in the last couple of years, since Travis and I started the program, it’s really exploded and our pilots can think up endless uses for the drones to be effective,” said Stotzheim. “I didn’t expect it to be this big, but it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down any. I think it’s only just begun how important drones are to us.”
As the field continues to evolve, it’s difficult to find comprehensive information on how many agencies are using drones and what they do with them. However, in nearby Minnesota, a law mandates that all law enforcement agencies using UAVs report their usage data annually.
The data reveals a diverse range of drone applications in Minnesota, with nearly half the flights dedicated to training and public relations. Emergency response and crash reconstruction follow as the next most common uses, highlighting the potential of drones to enhance public safety and streamline critical operations. Notably, the fifth most frequent use case is fulfilling requests from other government entities, echoing the Manitowoc team’s experience of assisting other agencies with their drone capabilities.
NAVIGATING CHALLENGES AND LIMITATIONS
While drones offer significant advantages, they are not without their challenges.
“The biggest challenge for us is just keeping up with updates and if something breaks, trying to get it fixed, sending them out and getting them back, whether it’s, you know, software issues or whatever else, that’s probably been the biggest hurdle,” said Stotzheim.
Ultimately, the deputies pressed that drones are just a tool. Law enforcement teams need to be ready to do what they need to if the tech doesn’t work.
“So we still have to remember tactics and just how we normally would operate prior to the drone,” said Aleff. “I know we talk about that almost constantly, especially with our SWAT team. The SWAT team still has to be effective in doing their normal tactics that they would have done prior to the drone, because [if] somebody takes a baseball bat to our drone, well, you’re going back to old school and working your tactics like we would have in the past, so just remember that it’s a great thing to have, and it’s definitely a disadvantage if we lose it, but you still have to be able to effectively work without it.”
The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department is currently working on expanding their drone program to incorporate drones that can be operated indoors.
