The Brick Township Police Department has announced it has acquired a Small Unmanned Aircraft System, AKA -Drone.

The Drone was purchased by using funding from the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety’s Comprehensive Traffic Safety Grant.

The Brick Township Police Department has taken steps to have two Traffic Safety Officers trained and licensed to be Drone Pilots. The Officers attended schooling at Eagle View Aviation in Farmingdale. After completion of schooling, Officers had to pass a sixty question exam that was administered by the FAA.

The use of the drone must be authorized by the Chief of Police. The Officers will follow all of the provisions as specified in Part 107 of the Federal Aviation Administration Small Unmanned Aircraft Rules and the Law enforcement Directive covering drones issued by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

The drone will be utilized for the following Law Enforcement Purposes:

1.Search and Rescue—Missing Persons Investigations, Amber alerts, Silver Alerts, and other search and rescue missions.
2.Scene Documentation—to document a crash scene, a crime scene, or other major incident scene.
3.Situational Awareness: To assist decision makers in understanding the nature, scale, and scope of an incident and for planning an effective response.
4.Visual Perspective: To provide an aerial visual perspective to assist law enforcement personnel in providing direction for crowd control, traffic incident management, special circumstances, and temporary perimeter security.
5.Tactical Deployment: to support the tactical deployment of law enforcement personnel and equipment in emergency situations

The Brick Township Police Department is looking to expand this program in the future to include additional licensed police officers and a drone equipped with night vision capabilities.