Will your local police department start hiring drones?
At the San Diego convention of the International Association of Police Chiefs — the world’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization of police chiefs — AeroVironment pitched the force on tiny surveillance drones small enough to fit in a police cruiser’s trunk.
According to a report on U-T San Diego
, the military supply company used a booth at the huge convention to show off its line of small unmanned military drones to local police officials. The company held a news conference on Sunday at the event, which runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 3., to show off its Qube drone.
That model weighs five pounds and is just three feet in length, yet it can fly as high as 500 feet and stay airborne for 40 minutes.
One of AeroVironment’s consultants is a former Glendale Police sergeant who now works with the Grand Forks, N.D., Sheriff’s Department, one of a handful of agencies in the country experimenting with the drones, according to U-T San Diego.
AeroVironment’s unmanned vehicles may be small, but they’re mighty; the craft make up 85 percent of the military’s unmanned might, a spokesman said. Most of the fleet are used for surveillance, though one plane, called the Switchblade, is designed for “suicide” style assault missions.
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