GILLETTE, Wyo. — Seeing a police drone could become as normal as seeing a police dog in the community — or at least that’s the end goal sought by Gillette Police Detective Cpl. Dan Stroup.
From initial first responders to tactical crisis negotiation and missing person searches, drones are well on their way to becoming an indispensable tool for police departments nationwide.
In 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union estimated more than 1,400 law enforcement agencies in the continental United States have relied or currently rely on drones in some capacity. By 2025, the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, predicts more than 30,000 public safety agencies will have a drone program in place, and the Gillette Police Department will be one of them.
Under the watchful eye of Stroup and department leadership, the GPD drone program is gaining altitude. What started as a test flight to assess the usefulness of drones in a law enforcement capacity has grown considerably to an indispensable tool with real-world capabilities.
Ground testing
Like most programs, the GPD drone program was built from the ground up, starting with Stroup’s initial purchase of an Emax TinyHawk, a toy tester that is now an initial training tool for aspiring GPD officer drone pilots. Stroup soon followed up the initial purchase by buying the DJI Avata, a larger drone with better capabilities like a 4K camera and stability control that was quickly put to use during several callouts.
It was the Avata that officers relied upon during the Sheridan standoff following the shooting of Sheridan Police Sgt. Nevada Krinkee, Stroup said, adding that he lost two drones that were both shot down by the suspect.
Upon the conclusion of the standoff, which ended in the suspect’s death, the GPD drone program took flight with department leadership seeing firsthand the usefulness of drones in a tactical setting, according to Stroup.
Gillette Police Chief Chuck Deaton said that after the standoff, he approached the Gillette City Council with a budget amendment in search of $75,000, a drop in the bucket for the department’s total $13 million budget.
The money has since been used to get the department’s drone program to where it is today: 16 drones including testers, additional DJI models, and a tactical drone agreement with Brinc for their Lemur system, per Stroup.
Flight plan
With the addition of the Brinc Lemur S and, now, Lemur 2, the GPD drone program is more capable than ever. While the drone models don’t have the stability of the DJI models and must be manually flown, they nevertheless give officers a prop up when dealing with certain situations like crisis negotiations, according to Stroup.
The Brinc Lemur system has a built-in phone and a glass breaker, and can carry a payload of up to a pound. Weapons are off-limits with federal regulations, Stroup said, but the payload feature can be used to carry in items like cigarettes to barricaded suspects and aid in bringing situations to a peaceful conclusion.
Stroup wants to take the program further and expand how drones are used, particularly when it comes to officer safety. In larger communities like Chula Vista, California, drones are often the first on the scene and provide responding officers with critical information on what kind of situation they are walking into.
In Sheridan, drones allowed officers to see the suspect without having to step into harm’s way. While two were shot down, Stroup said the drones were a small price to pay if it meant more officers weren’t injured.
“I can replace these; I can’t replace cops,” Stroup said, adding that he’d rather have a drone deploy into a situation first before sending in a human officer or a dog. If a drone is sent in and is subsequently shot down by a suspect, that at least gives officers an idea of the kind of person they are dealing with.
It will be a while before the local program can rival those in larger communities like Chula Vista, which has drone boxes stationed all around the city from which drones deploy regularly. In six months, though, he sees the GPD program pilots licensed for daily flights through the FAA, with drones available for deployment at any given moment.
Eyes up
While the idea of drones flying around the community could be unnerving to some people, particularly those concerned about their privacy potentially being invaded, Stroup stressed that the intent behind the drone program is not to spy on anyone.
“I want to be the guy who finds the kid that walks out of the house when it’s 25 below zero,” Stroup said. He doesn’t want the program to be about peeping at weeds in a backyard or looking into windows.
There’s also case law to take into consideration. With drones being a relatively new development, especially in a law enforcement capacity, the current case law doesn’t give a clear direction on what is acceptable when it comes to drones, per Stroup.
He recalled a case in which drones were used to ferret out a marijuana grow in an attic. While investigators didn’t know the exact location, they were able to use a thermal imaging drone to identify a house with a warmer-than-average attic and uncover the marijuana grow. While one court threw the case out while stating technology couldn’t be used in such a manner, other courts upheld it and approved of the method.
Case law will likely emerge with a clearer directive, and Stroup hopes it will aid in keeping police drones in the air. Under no circumstances does he want the GPD program to be the reason for bad case law that could hamstring the effort in other departments.
“Someone, somewhere might do something stupid, but it won’t be us,” Stroup said, adding that the program will look to discourage actions that violate residents’ rights to privacy or use drones to establish probable cause to enter homes.
In Gillette, Stroup said the emphasis would be on officer safety and any drone deployment into a home would require a warrant. As a deterrent for inappropriate drone usage, all drone footage would be stored similarly to body camera footage, in an online archive where data can exist indefinitely or briefly depending on its nature.
The GPD is currently hard at work developing drone policies, which are part of its accreditation efforts through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.
