The Arlington police are expanding its drone program to react to further crime calls

The Arlington police announced the expansion of their drone on Wednesday as a first aid program so that the department can react to more help in the city than before.

“I would like to make it clear that DFR will not replace our traditional police reaction,” said police chief Al Jones. “However, this technology offers us considerable opportunities to serve our community better, which is why we hug them. The faster we can bring a situation in mind, the safer the result for everyone.”

As part of the DFR program of the department, the mechanical drones are used to improve the reaction of the civil servants.

Arlington officers, who are drone pilots, can fly the drones into a scene, offer a live image of the area from above and give the responding civil servants real-time information, the department said in a press release.

Since drones can achieve scenes faster than an official of a police cruiser, the use of the officials can help to find suspects faster, to make better competent decisions and to better protect themselves and the community, said officials.

The drone program was originally carried out to react to the increased number of calls on July 4 and on New Year's weekend, the police said. Now the program can be used for a variety of criminal calls, including burglaries, severe attacks, missing people and much more.

The Arlington police are one of the country's first law enforcement agencies in order to receive a waiver of the Federal Aviation Administration for the operation of the DFR program, according to the department.

Officials said that the waiver APD made it possible to fly drones at larger distances than usually authorized and be able to control the drones from the interior of the real -time center of the department from a distance, which strengthens the effectiveness of the program.

The police installed DFR -Docks in two places in the city where drone pilots can start a drone immediately, according to the press release. The drones can drive up to a radius of 1.5 miles from the docks and reach speeds of up to 50 miles per hour.

Officials said that the department was “obliged to protect the data protection rights of the municipality and have set up security precautions that ensure that the DFR program is” appropriately managed “. In addition, APD is legally obliged to submit a report to the state in which all drones are described every two years.