Hopes To Send Automated UAVs To Gunshot Sites

The City of Louisville, KY has made an application to the FAA that would allow it to become the first city to deploy automated drones to areas where gunshots are fired.

Insider Louisville reports that the drones would be flown to areas where gunfire is detected by the city's new ShotSpotter technology. The application was made under the USA Integration Pilot Program announced by President Donald Trump in October.

Drones equipped with cameras would fly to the sites identified by ShotSpotter to give a nearly immediate assessment of the situation. The cameras would be monitored by the LMPD's Real Time Crime Center.

Grace Simrall, Louisville’s chief of civic innovation, said that the drones would be an "augmentation" to the city's existing network of public safety cameras, "providing better tactical awareness to our officers, potentially capturing suspects or vehicles fleeing scenes of crimes, finding evidence faster, finding victims faster and providing medical attention.”

Simrall said that the city understands the public's privacy concerns. and that it would communicate with residents to "explain the very constrained uses of it."

She added that the application process is very competitive, and that as few as five would be selected from the more than 300 applicants to the program. She said that the plans for the automated drone program are "very preliminary."

(Image from file)

FMI: Original report