Operating Drones in Remote Areas

摘要

Since the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office in Virginia stood up its drone program about three years ago, it has been able to deploy unmanned ariel vehicles for a myriad of uses. "We support patrol when they have incidents such as runaways or missing people. If they have car accidents sometimes, we'll support them on traffic problems," says Deputy Mike Christie. "One of the most important things is that as soon as we have somebody missing, we can get on scene pretty quick. We have a vehicle with all of our equipment, and we have a driver that is nearby the office who can jump in it with myself and anybody else." Spotsylvania County has a heavy population area, but also has quite a bit of rural area. Also within the county is Lake Anna, which is one of the largest freshwater inland reservoirs in the state. Covering an area of 13,000 acres, it was created in 1972 to support the North Anna Power Station. Responses to the lake usually involve calls for drowning victims, missing persons or boat crashes.