DEC 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 12

AROUND THE COUNTRY
HAMILTON CNTY, TN.
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office unveils a drone command
vehicle to support its drone team.
By Ellen Gerst
Chattanooga Times Free Press
HAMILTON COUNTY, TN. — A new
drone command van unveiled last
month is set to help Hamilton County
first responders streamline search
and rescue missions, crime scene
investigations and other operations.
The vehicle is the first of its kind
to be used by law enforcement in
Tennessee, according to the Sheriff’s
Office.
Hamilton County has used drones
since 2016, Sheriff Austin Garrett
said. Eighteen pilots from the
Sheriff’s Office and Hamilton County
Emergency Management are now
certified to fly them.
So far this year, the county’s drone
team has used the aircraft in around
670 missions for a total of nearly
500 miles flown, according to the
Sheriff’s Office.
The new van, an enhanced sprinter
the Sheriff’s Office said cost the
county $168,100, will be shared by
deputies and emergency responders.
It’s an update from the previous
vehicle the office used for drone
command, a 2001 work van that
was modified in-house. The updated
van will also be used to help
respond to calls from other agencies
in the area, Garrett said in an
interview last week.
“This is kind of seen as a toy by
most people, but in this profession,
there’s a lot of areas that we
can’t get to on foot and in the right
amount of time,” Garrett said.
A 15-foot mast on the van’s roof
boosts the command center’s connection
to drones and extends the
drones’ range, Capt. Mark Hooper
said.
Drones are most commonly used
for search and rescue operations,
or to find missing people, according
to data from the Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies also use them to locate
suspects, map crime or accident
scenes, and monitor large crowds
at events including Riverbend and
the annual Ironman race.
“When you got a place that’s got
10,000 people in it, and we get a
report that somebody’s down on
the other side, we can fly that, get
exactly where it’s at and see, OK,
what’s going on,” Garrett said. “It
saves a lot of time.”
He said the drones can also protect
deputies from being harmed
when going into a dangerous situation.
The updated van provides first
responders with a safe and warm
place where they can operate
drones and monitor live feeds in
any weather. The system can also
live stream drone footage for other
responders to watch even if they
aren’t on scene, Hooper said.
In April 2020, the drones were
used to assess damage from a
tornado that moved through East
Brainerd and other parts of Hamilton
County. A few months later, the
Sheriff’s Office said, deputies used
drones to monitor protests against
police brutality that brought thousands
of people to the streets of
Chattanooga.
While most of the county’s drones
are only equipped with cameras,
some can also perform thermal
imaging or drop small items like
lifejackets to people in hard-toreach
places.
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