2022 Police Annual Report

DRONE DEPLOYMENTS BY YEAR

38

SMALL UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM

30

24

22

19

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

In 2016, The Orland Park Police Department (OPPD) became the first municipal police department in Illinois to receive Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.) authorization to operate a small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) in national airspace for law enforcement operations. The Department now has fifteen (16) F.A.A. licensed sUAS pilots who work all shifts and are capable of flying the drones at any time, day or night. The OPPD had 24 drone deployments in 2022, which reflects a ten (10) percent increase from 2021. In these deployments, OPPD sUAS operators located two suicidal subjects, three suspects who fled from crashes or traffic stops and one subject with diminished mental capacity who wandered from a group home. Operators assisted several other agencies in searches for suspects of vehicular hijackings, stolen cars and robberies. Beginning in 2022, OPPD operators began assisting with serious traffic crash investigations by going through training in how to record these crashs scenes with the use of the sUAS. In 2020, these operators gave a virtual presentation to a national audience, about the OPPD sUAS program, at the request of the F.A.A.

DRONE DEPLOYMENTS BY MONTH

5

4

3

2

2

2

2

1

1

1

1

0

AUG SEP

OCT

NOV DEC

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL

58 | POLICE ANNUAL REPORT

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