WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (KDVR) — Wheat Ridge Police Department is taking searching and investigating to new heights with a new drone program.

A police team of eight drone pilots is now regularly deploying drones for crimes indoors and outside around the community.

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“We’ve been able to get just different perspectives of serious car crashes, situational awareness, overwatch when we’re on calls,” Sgt. John Bowman said.

With crashes along Interstate 70 or searches for missing people and suspects, Bowman said the drone team allows them to cover much more ground in areas officers may not normally be able to access on foot.

“The drones have the ability to actually tell you what the heat signatures, approximate temperature is. It’ll tell us distance. We’re able to drop pin markers if we’re looking for something or looking for somebody that was running,” Bowman said.

Aside from eyes in the sky in real time, the drone team is a tool the department uses to recreate crime scenes.

“We’re able to utilize these drones to take a series of photos, put them in mapping and recreate a crime scene,” Bowman said.

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“We’re able to piece the whole story together,” Bowman said, adding: “You have A and B, and this helps us fill in C. It gives us a much more complete picture of what the situation was at the time it occurred.”

The team started regularly deploying the drones in April. They try to have a pilot on each shift to be able to utilize the drones for crimes investigated around the clock.

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