Hinckley police chief lobbies for drones

Oct. 6 township trustees meeting

by Melissa Martin

Hinckley Township is one step closer to establishing a drone unit for the police department at the request of Chief Mike Schroll.

Schroll introduced the idea at the Sept. 15 township trustees meeting after the department received a $50,000 donation from the Park Family Foundation. Donations from that foundation are used for purchases normally outside the department’s operating budget.

Thanks to the Park Foundation, Schroll said the department has more than $100,000 of donated money set aside, a portion of which could be used to purchase drones and provide officers with training.

Schroll told trustees the drones would help in searches for lost seniors and children, as well as to track individuals looking to evade police. Currently, he said, the department has to rely on neighboring police departments with drones when searching for individuals.

Because tariffs on imported drones are expected to significantly increase the cost of the devices once vendor inventory is depleted, Schroll recommended moving forward with the purchase sooner rather than later.

“By saving those substantial cost increases with the use of only donation money, [it would be to our advantage] to explore obtaining the equipment now,” he said, noting that vendors say tariffs are expected to increase the cost of drones by more than 100%.

“An $8,000 drone is expected to become a $20,000 drone once current stock is sold,” he said.

Schroll said the proposal includes indoor and outdoor drones, backup equipment and accessories, with an estimated startup cost of $20,000. He said an officer qualified to provide drone training has offered to train department personnel at no cost. The township plans to pay the $175 Federal Aviation Administration examination fee per officer.

Trustee Tom Schrader said he supports the idea of establishing a drone unit. However, he said residents have expressed concerns about privacy and constitutional rights.

To ease those concerns, Fiscal Officer Rich Fay asked trustees to consider developing a policy governing drone use that addresses privacy, records retention, operating standards, insurance coverage and potential liability.

Schroll noted that Lexipol, a private company that provides state-specific policy manuals, online training modules and more for public safety agencies, has a model policy already in place that addresses drone use. He also said that Ohio H.B. 251, which took effect in October, establishes additional requirements for documentation, recordkeeping and legal compliance. He added that the vendor the township is looking to use – Ohio Drone Repair in Bath Township – offered to provide a demonstration and address any questions regarding insurance and related matters.

That vendor attended the Oct. 6 meeting and explained the features useful to police. Those features include thermal cameras, laser range finders, zoom capabilities, obstacle avoidance monitors and smart-tracking capabilities, among others.

Roger Mortimer, owner of Ohio Drone Repair, told trustees his company is not only the largest retailer of drones in Northeast Ohio, it is also one of the largest repair centers for drones in the U.S. He said the firm works with more than 700 law enforcement agencies in the nation, including several in Northeast Ohio. He also said he has become an auxiliary firefighter with the city of Macedonia to aid in establishing a drone team.

“Using these drones for lifesaving instances can be so impactful,” he said, noting that Medina Township and Richfield are among the latest communities to add drones to their safety forces.

Fire Chief Matt Payne said fire departments nationwide are using them during large fires.

Schroll told trustees drones the police department seeks to purchase are manufactured by DJI, a Chinese company, as domestic drones “don’t come close to having the technology [of Chinese drones] and are ” three-to-four times the cost and only offer about a quarter of the features.”

Mortimer, who launched his company 5½ years ago, described DJI drones as the industry’s “gold standard,” noting that nearby Montville Township operates a fleet of 10 DJI drones.

Schroll said his department could have used its own drones in several recent incidents. This summer, he said police had to call for backup from nearby communities with drones while working a case in the middle of the night.

“Our guys called for a drone for a domestic violence incident on W. 130th Street around 3 a.m., during which the suspect ran from police and into a nearby wooded area,” Schroll said, adding the department used a drone to locate the suspect.

The suspect in a case on Warner Road this summer attempted to shoot his father and brother in North Royalton before fleeing to his home in Hinckley.

“We activated the SWAT team and thought he was barricaded in the house,” Schroll said. “I was working the mobile command center around 2-3 a.m., and we got three or four drones up and were able to use the thermal camera to see that he was sitting underneath an umbrella in a lawn chair in his backyard. We were able to watch him smoke a cigarette and drink a beer and were able to keep eyes on him constantly as the SWAT team came up with a plan to recover him. Without that capability, we would have thought he was in the house and who knows [how that would have ended]. … The same thing applies with missing elderly and missing children – the thermal imaging [the drones offer] is unbelievable, especially with this zoom.”

Schroll said he and the trustees plan to discuss purchasing the drones in the coming weeks.