If an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly called a “drone”, is hovering over your house, it’s definitely not operated by the Oro Valley Police Department. “We don’t use our UAV’s for surveillance on our citizens.” This according to Lieutenant John Teachout of the Oro Valley Police Department.
Teachout is the department’s Special Operations Lieutenant. Among his many responsibilities is the oversight of the town’s UAV program. This is a program that currently has five UAV’s, piloted by fourteen FAA licensed police officers.
UAV use pilot tested at the 2017 Oro Valley Music Festival
The town’s UAV program started at the 2017 Oro Valley Music Festival. “I was responsible for overseeing the security.” The event was taking place shortly after the tragic Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on the Las Vegas Strip. The Saguarita Police Department had recently started a UAV program. Teachout asked them to bring their UAV to the event to see how it would work the perimeter security. He was looking for bad guys and suspicious vehicles, such as unusual people coming into the event “…in the middle of the summer with a trench coat.” Fortunately, there were none that day. John found that the UAV’s provided another use. That was the better deployment of the officers handling security around the facility.
Sharp sees the UAV program… starts program
After learning of these positive results, Then Police Chief Daniel Sharp told John to “start the program.” Armed with about $25,000 in confiscated racketeering funds, Teachout took on the task of learning more about the technology and the UAV options. He selected DJI as the platform to use. “They have the bulk of the market.” The town bought three UAVs. Now they have five. All are controlled using the Global Positioning System (“GPS”).
UAVs serve two primary uses
The UAV’s are used for two primary purposes: “Search and Rescue” and “Crime Scene Mapping.”
Sergeant Marshall Morris responsible for the operation of the UAV program, demonstrated how it is used for mapping traffic accident scenes. “We set placards on the ground in the area and use those as the guides for mapping.” The UAV will “…go through a flight pattern and take a bunch of photos. We download those to software that puts the photos together into a 3D like image.”
This method is much more accurate than the previous method of walking the grid; taking pictures and measurements. It is more readily accepted in court, if needed. UAV mapping has the advantage of allowing the officers to open the road more quickly. “People don’t like to be delayed.“
Nab the bad guys
Occasionally, the UAV is used on a criminal investigation. For example, the Department used them to for surveillance on an alleged illegal drug operation in Pima County. The operation was selling the illegal drugs in Oro Valley. They were operated pursuant to a warrant. The Department needed to us an aerial surveillance approach because the property had seven foot walls surrounding it. They hovered at 400 feet and were able to use what they had to “nab the bad guys.”
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A shout out to our Police Department:
Lieutenant John Teachout is the town’s special operations Lieutenant. He oversees the officers (motorcycle officers, crash investigators, DUI officers), the canine program, the regional motorcycle training program, regional asset teams, and the UAV program. He has been on the force for 26 years doing “Mostly uniform stuff”. He has served under three chiefs: Werner Wolfe, who subsequently became a town council member; Dan Sharp, who is a 2022 candidate for Mayor; and current chief, Kara Riley. There were 15 officers when he joined the department. There are more than 100 today.
