Troy Police Chief Randall Barr said the department’s new drone will be a multifunctional use tool.

“It’s only limited by your imagination,” Barr said. “It’s amazing when you get in the air how your perspective changes. This could be used to get an aerial photo of a crime scene or to find a missing child or elderly person who was wandered off. From public safety to investigation, it just has unlimited uses. You just see so much more from the air.”

Barr said the department had been looking at drones for quite some time and finally budgeted to get one this year. While the drone can’t replace all of the functions of a helicopter, it can perform some of the same functions as a helicopter and it can be deployed much more quickly. That’s because any time the city needs to use a helicopter it has to use one from the state or from Dale County.

“With this, I can deploy it at least until the helicopter arrives,” Barr said. “I can get it up in the air in a few minutes, whereas it will take 30 to 40 minutes for a chopper to arrive.”

The drone is a DJI Inspire 1 Pro with a 4K camera mounted on a 3-axis gimbal that allows for a steady camera regardless of how the drone is flying. The drone can reach up to 400 feet in height, and could go higher if it weren’t for FAA regulations that set the ceiling 100 feet below the minimum flight height for helicopters and airplanes. The drone can reach speeds of up to 45 mph and can go nearly two miles from the controller without losing its signal. It uses vision positioning, GPS and sonar detection to recognize its position in relation to the ground.

Despite all the technical things it can do, Barr said that controlling the aircraft is fairly easy. “If you can work a TV remote, you can fly this drone,” he said. “The controller is like a video game controller.”

The main controller consists of two joysticks, a tablet monitor, and buttons for the camera. The person using the main controller can use the left joystick to make the drone rise or descend or to spin left or right. The right joystick is used to make the drone fly forward, backward, left or right. A knob on the remote allows the user to angle the camera, but the drone must be spun to rotate it.

A second remote allows for one user to operate the aircraft while the second user operates the camera, allowing for 360-degree rotation of the camera no matter which way the drone is facing.

Barr said that the department still has some paperwork to fill out before being able use the drone in the field, but hopes to have it available for use soon.