Up, up and away!

The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office is proud to announce it has received a $9,619 grant to purchase two (2) UAV’S (drones). The grant was awarded by the Dr. Louis & Violet Rubin Fund of the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois Community Grants Program.

These UAV’s (drones) are fitted with both visible and thermal spectrum cameras allowing functional operation during the day or in the dark of night which is essential for search & researches and active shooters incidents. The drones will also be used for crime scene documentation, traffic collision documentation, and in natural disaster assistance. These devices allow us to search large areas much faster than of foot and during incidents like flooding, we are able to document and assess flood threats in areas that would have otherwise been difficult to get to.

The Sheriff’s Office originally intended to purchase just one drone, but thanks to officers’ careful attention were able to purchase two drones and numerous accessories, including a VR (virtual reality) headset, to round out their UAV kit.

Representatives from the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois and the Sheriff’s Office participated in a live demonstration of the drones for the media on Wednesday, June 5th.

The officers had a groundskeeper hide behind another building used the drone to find him.

The mission of the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office is to serve our community with exceptional public safety services that are second to none.

• 

  Virtual Reality headset

• 

• 

  View of the drone pilot from the thermo camera

• 

  UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) up close!

Coming in for a landing!