UAV (Drone)
Vigo County Sheriff Department and the Vigo County Emergency Management Agency established an Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Division. The UAS Division consists of 5 teams operating a UAS, more commonly referred to as a “drone.” Vigo County currently has UAV’s equipped with both zoom cameras as well as FLIR camera capable of night vision and is also able to pick up heat signatures during the day and night.
The UAV program is also federally recognized and maintains both a Blanket and Jurisdiction COA issued by the FAA.
UAS Deployments
The UAS division is used for many different details. The primary purpose is for search and rescue missions. Searches that used to take hours have been cut down to minutes in most cases. A large area that once required a lot of manpower to cover can now be done much faster and with fewer people. Already this year the UAS Division has had multiple successful missions in which a missing juvenile, adult as well as a fleeing suspect have all been located with only a few minutes of getting up in the air. Other uses so far have included photographic documentation of accident scenes, crime scenes, and search warrant services. The limitations do not end there though as we continue to discover new ways to use the technology.
11-8-23
The Vigo County Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Management drones responded to a large field fire in Southern Vigo County on Tuesday evening. The use of drones were called to provide incident commanders with a good field of vision for a large incident footprint. This also provided thermal vision to detect hot spots. These are examples of the use of this modern technology. Sheriff’s office and EMA staff provided 6 personnel and two drones to the incident involving five to ten acres of burning standing corn, which was threatening nearby structures. Multiple agencies responded to this incident and contained the fire to crop and vegetation.
UAS Division Publicity
Vigo County’s UAS division does public demonstrations for organizations such as schools, charities and community events. To request a UAV demonstration please contact uavdemo@vigosheriff.in.gov