The Federal Aviation Administration authorized the Polk County Sheriff’s Office to fly an unmanned aircraft armed with a camera from August 2009 to August 2010.
The modified Easy Star ready-to-fly, radio-controlled plane was flown more than 400 feet above a portion of the Green Swamp, north of Lakeland. It has a mid-mounted propeller that operated on a battery made by Multiplex USA.
The aircraft used by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office was about 35 inches long and 54 inches wide, said Scott Wilder, spokesman for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. The Styrofoam aircraft gives deputies real time surveillance of an area.
The agency leased it for $1,418 for the year. Wilder said the equipment was like an “extra set of eyes” for deputies. The agency tested the aircraft for a year because it had the potential to be a cheaper alternative to using helicopters. It was tested several times in different weather in the Green Swamp, Wilder said, for about 15 minutes to 20 minutes at a time.
Deputies said the aircraft could have come in handy while searching for suspects or serving a warrant. “If we were going to do a raid on a house or serve a search warrant on the house,” Wilder said, “we would fly it over to see if anyone runs out.”
But the Sheriff’s Office decided it would cost too much to use the UAS and deputies have not used the aircraft since 2010. The FAA requires anyone who operates UAS to have a pilot’s license, which Wilder said would increase the overall cost. “In the end, we decided that it wasn’t for us,” he said.
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Easy Star II Photo: Multiplex USA
Source: The Ledger