With the help of drones, also called the UAS (Unmanned Aerial System), the police through Fredrik Palm-Vestlund and his colleague get a new perspective that was previously only obtained from a helicopter. Work on drones has so far been a project, but Fredrik believes it will become more and more common with drones in the police operations in the future.
- I fly in search of a lost person, and in social anxiety to create a situation. Then I can also document damage sites or crime scenes from above. We get a true situation where we can see what is happening in a specific place, he says.
He sees many advantages with the drone when, for example, searching for missing persons where he can search with a thermal camera, just like a police helicopter, but in a simpler way.
Costs less- Above all, costs are an advantage over a helicopter. A helicopter costs SEK 15,000-20,000 per hour just for the airplane, while a drone costs SEK 125-150 per hour. Then there is a lot of noise from a helicopter, the drone is not heard at all in the same way, says Fredrik.
He himself is also an expert in just searching and knows a lot to be able to contribute in the search in this new way.
- Obviously it affects emotionally. We are looking for a reason where we have found that people are in need, people who are not in need we are not looking for, says Fredrik Palm-Vestlund.
Watch the video where Fredrik shows the police drone and see the pictures from the heat camera - "In the future, every other police car will have a drone"