California Deputies Use Drone To Disarm Suspect in ‘Nationwide First’

In what officials are calling a first in American history, a California sheriff’s department used a drone to disarm an armed suspect — a move authorities say signals the future of local law enforcement.The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday that its special enforcement unit had surrounded a residence earlier in June after a suspect, described as a known felon and parolee-at-large, was spotted carrying a firearm. When the suspect failed to respond to negotiators, drone pilots flew an aircraft inside the home and located him hiding in the corner of a garage, armed with a knife.“After not responding to negotiators, a drone was deployed inside the residence,” the sheriff’s office said in a post on X. “Drone pilots located the suspect hiding in a corner of a garage. One of his hands was concealed under his body, and the other was holding a knife. He was obviously alive, but not responding. Was he pretending to be dead or simply lying in wait for deputies to approach?”“Rather than rush into a potentially deadly encounter, one drone pilot came up with an innovative solution. By attaching a powerful magnet to the drone, the pilot was able to safely remove the knife from the suspect’s hand before deputies moved in. It was an incredible display of creativity, skill, and precision by the drone pilot,” the sheriff’s office said. A video shared by the department — set to the “Mission: Impossible” theme — shows an officer in goggles operating the drone, then captures the intercepted knife spinning through the air as the aircraft carries it back to deputies.Sheriff Jim Cooper said the suspect was initially responsive to law enforcement but later appeared unconscious and “may have overdosed.” He praised the patrolman who came up with the magnet idea and made clear that drones are now central to his department’s operations.“The future is drones. Obviously, we use them a lot to make entry into houses, I mean, on a regular basis,” Sheriff Cooper told host Blake Burman on NewsNation’s “The Hill.” “They work, they’re cheap, they save lives.”The Sacramento case is part of a broader trend across California. At Yucaipa, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department launched a Drone as First Responder pilot program on May 28. Within weeks, drones had responded to more than 100 calls for service — arriving before deputies 71 percent of the time — and contributed to 12 arrests, according to the department. The Skydio-manufactured aircraft were also used to locate a young person experiencing a mental health crisis and to find someone setting off illegal fireworks.Drone programs are spreading nationwide. The Los Angeles Police Department estimates that roughly 1,500 police agencies across America operate drones, 58 of them in California.Still, the rapid adoption has drawn scrutiny. The American Civil Liberties Union acknowledges drones “have many beneficial uses,” including search-and-rescue, but warns that aircraft equipped with facial recognition, infrared technology, and audio surveillance “would cause unprecedented invasions of our privacy rights,” The Hill reports. The group recommends safeguards, including a warrant requirement before deployment.Sheriff Cooper, however, sees the technology as a lifesaver. “It possibly saved someone’s life, preventing us from taking a life,” he said. “So, it’s a win-win all the way around for everyone.”

California Deputies Use Drone To Disarm Suspect in ‘Nationwide First’

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