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High-tech policing on horizon

Miniature remote-controlled surveillance helicopters and GPS tracking of domestic violence offenders are just a few of the technological leaps and bounds being taken by law enforcement agencies in Central Alberta.

Miniature remote-controlled surveillance helicopters and GPS tracking of domestic violence offenders are just a few of the technological leaps and bounds being taken by law enforcement agencies in Central Alberta.

Some items have been deployed, some are being tested and some are borderline pipe-dreams, but all represent what the future holds for policing in the area.

Sylvan Lake RCMP is right on the cutting edge, pioneering Segway patrols and buying and training on unmanned aerial vehicles.

The detachment initially purchased a $4,000 RC flyer from Saskatoon’s Draganfly Innovations Inc. a few years ago. That helicopter didn’t work properly, so in January the staff at Draganfly upgraded the Mounties for free to their next tier of craft, the $10,000 Draganflyer X4.

The four-rotored helicopter is fitted with a camera, and while one officer pilots the craft, another one can see through the camera care of video feed-fitted sunglasses.

“Our members here, every one of them wants to fly it,” said acting Staff Sgt. Duncan Babchuk.

There are “endless” applications for the helicopter, including by an Emergency Response Team if there’s a suspect barricaded in a building and police want to have a look without sending anyone closer, he said. Having an eye in the sky taking pictures would also be a big boon to crash reconstruction, Babchuck added.

“All summer, missing kid, missing kid, missing kid. If you could put a video (camera) up and pan the beach area . . . That would help,” he said.

In the spring, as the detachment was awaiting a commercial use permit from Transport Canada to operate the Draganfly, RCMP K Division instead ordered the machine sent to Ottawa for flight tests.

“On the face of it, it seems like a very good idea for utilization,” said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Patrick Webb.

“But there are hundreds of detachments across Canada, so it might be appropriate to be used in other places, as well.”

Webb said the Sylvan Lake detachment is “always on the cutting edge” and has forward-thinking personnel who deserve credit for identifying the possibility of using Draganfly machines in police work.

“We’ve got to look at the cost of the machine in the first place, cost of replacements and repairs, cost of operating and training,” said Webb, adding that all RCMP equipment, whether patrol cars or holsters, is tested before being deployed.

Transport Canada has already issued permits to Saskatoon Police and the Ontario Provincial Police to use Draganfly helicopters.

A Draganfly spokesman said Sylvan Lake is the first RCMP detachment in the country to purchase one of their helicopters.

While the Mounties consider having an eye in the sky, they already have wheels on the beach.

In 2007, the detachment borrowed two Segways, small two-wheeled electric vehicles, to test them out on the town’s beaches in the summertime.

Seeing success with the swift, silent machines — able, for instance, to “come up on someone drinking in an alley” with ease — they purchased two themselves the year after and continue to operate the otherwise illegal vehicles through a special permit, Babchuk said.

He said almost all members of the detachment have now been trained on the Segways and they were a big hit on the beach and a topic of the kind of RCMP-civilian conversation that furthers community policing.

The big item on Red Deer City RCMP’s wish list is a GPS tracking program for people convicted of domestic violence and then released into the public.

They have applied for $500,000 in grants from the province for the pilot program to be run through their domestic criminal violence unit, and commanding officer Supt. Brian Simpson hopes to have it in place as soon as possible.

“It’s going to happen. If it doesn’t happen this year, we’ll try next year,” said Simpson. “It just makes a lot of sense.”

The system would ensure that offenders comply with the conditions of their release, and to ensure the safety of victims and their families.

It would accomplish this by letting a dedicated unit of police and support staff know the movements of offenders in real-time, so that they’d know if the offenders strayed from their routine.

It would also incorporate an alarm for victims to know if the offender is within a certain range of them.

It’s a big step beyond the old house arrest bracelets.

“I think it definitely has broader applications, but let’s walk before we run,” said Simpson.

mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com