LEBANON, Tenn. (WTVF) — Lebanon City Council gave the initial green light Tuesday night for a new effort that would add drone technology to help first responders.
It is part of a new, year-long pilot program the city is considering.
When first responders hit the road, they are often headed to a stressful situation.
Showing up prepared is just one reason the Lebanon Police Department is hoping to add new drones.
"We want to have the most information showing up to a scene so it's the safest on our officers and our firefighters, and these drones, we believe can help us achieve that," said Zach Patton, public information officer for Lebanon Police Department.
The pilot program is offered through Brinc Drones and Motorola.
For the program, the department would get four new drones, with two focused on helping first responders.
"It has a grapple tool on the bottom of it. It can actually hold on to a couple of different life-saving devices, one of those being Narcan," Patton said.
The second type are called tactical indoor drones.
"That drone can break a window and go through the window and go ahead and start doing what it needs to do inside a house or car," Patton said.
The drones also have a speaker and microphone to communicate with people on scene before crews arrive.
The pilot program comes at no cost to the city for one year.
After that, if they want to sign on to the service long-term, they would have to start paying.
The drones would be flown by pilots at the police station, but they would be positioned around the city.
"Having these drones already installed on buildings around the city will cut down on precious time to potentially locate a missing person," Patton said.
According to Patton, most police drones require a warrant to conduct surveillance on a property. However, these first responder drones would primarily be used to assist in emergency situations.
Patton said he understands people may have reservations about the drones and said transparency of this program is one reason they chose Brinc and Motorola.
"They've equipped us with the ability to have a transparency page where the public can get on and see where these drones have flown to and what paths they've taken and essentially where they've gone," Patton said.
This story was reported on-air by Robb Coles and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Coles verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
If you live in Lebanon and have questions or concerns about the new drones that could be coming to the police department, please email Robb at robb.coles@newschannel.com.
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