Police Department in Texas Drones could soon be used to respond to emergency calls, according to Police Chief Brian Jones.
The Bee Cave Police Department offers one of their exhibits Autonomous drone system Friday morning, known as “AV8”.
The demonstration was part of a pilot project to test the AV8, which also includes a computer system to keep the drone on target. Both are built by Eve Vehicles, an Austin-based start-up.
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“Well, it’s a force multiplier for us, really, because it acts as an eye in the sky and gives us real-time information before an officer gets on the scene,” Bee Cave Chief of Police Brian Jones told FOX 7 Austin. .
“We’ve been through several generations,” Eve Vehicles co-founder and CEO Roger Pacina told FOX 7 Austin. “We have been working on this particular concept for almost two years.”
The batteries for the drone, which are stored onboard, provide about 40 minutes of flight time.
“And when that drone’s battery is running low, it will actually call another drone in the network. They’ll come and replace it,” Pacina told Fox 7 Austin. “And then it goes to a nearby nest to recharge its battery.”
In the pilot program, routes for drones are pre-programmed along local roads and highways to reach dispatch locations for emergency calls.
“So, the idea is that once they have the address, they plug it into the AV8 which does all the calculations to see which drone is near that call and goes off autonomously, and it goes to the scene without a pilot. It comes when it’s on the scene when the pilot takes control and can move the drone around to get better views of what’s being developed,” Pacina told FOX 7 Austin.
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From there, the video is transmitted directly back to the drone, where the feed is sent to Bee Cave police patrol cars and smartphones in real-time.
The first deployment of the AV8 system could take place next week on limited emergency calls in Bee Cave, which A suburb of Austin. However, the entire system is not expected to be deployed for another month or two.
Future plans are already in the works with Eve Vehicles to create a night vision option for the AV8 drone as well as a parachute safety system. Drones are launched from “nests”, which are open-air platforms.
Three launch sites, including two local schools, were selected for the Bee Cave AV8 pilot program. The schools were selected before last Wednesday’s mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
“For example, say you use a school shooter in Georgia, heaven forbid, something like that had to happen here,” Police Chief Brian Jones told FOX 7 Austin. “And we had the capabilities, this drone technology capability, we would have that information before the officers even got to the scene, so we could be better prepared to engage the suspect.”
“We can probably know their location before the officers arrive, and we can respond to that situation better and potentially save a life,” Chief Jones told FOX 7 Austin.
There is no official start date for the Bee Cave AV8 pilot program.
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The Bee Cave Police Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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