The beach town began utilizing a drone to patrol its coastline just two months ago, according to The Star-News. In addition to its loudspeaker function, the drone can also snap pictures of someone who refuses to leave the dunes and inform the police.
The drone also helps monitor beach safety, which is seen as important given that Oak Island lies in Brunswick County, which lacks lifeguards for its 50-mile coastline. Many towns in the county can’t afford full-time lifeguards, so they must lean on volunteers and individuals who have retired from law enforcement.
“We’ve got nine miles of beach and that’s almost impossible to control any other way,” Oak Island Mayor Ken Thomas told The Star-News. “It would take such a large police force without it.”
Thomas believes other beach towns will follow Oak Island’s lead, especially “once they see how it works.”
While nearby Sunset Beach is looking at the idea of including drones in its budget, according to Fire Chief Paul Hasenmeier, other towns aren’t convinced a drone will be an option for them.
“Being very small, it’s just something that a smaller town wouldn’t be able to take advantage of,” Caswell Beach Mayor Deb Ahlers told The Star-News. “We are limited to how many officers we have on at a time, and I would assume that if you have somebody who is operating it, they’re not doing their police work. And then you got to get somebody down on the beach to take care of whatever is going on.”
In the United States, drones have been used on beaches for a variety of purposes, including shark detection and rescue missions. Last year, the Golden Valley Police Department in Minnesota was criticized for flying drones to look for public nudity on a beach.
Other countries have also sent drones to beaches. In Australia, drones have been used for years to track sharks, and last year, the country had drones monitor citizens on beaches for social distancing. This year, the town of Sitges in Spain has also started enforcing social distancing on beaches with drones.
