With 19 towns over 700 square miles, there's a lot of ground and water for Lincoln County law enforcement to cover. Thanks to the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) 5-person drone team headed by Deputy Jeffrey Rogers, coverage is coming from above, too.

Lead drone pilot Rogers joined LCSO in 2021 after 29 years of experience with the Arlington, Texas police department. As part of his duties there, he was leader of a 14-person drone team. Recently, the Boothbay Register asked Rogers about the use of drones by law enforcement in different types of locations.

He explained that in Arlington, a Dallas suburb of 400,000, "Drones would go on every swat call," giving the swat team information about the building and, "putting the drone in harm's way rather than the officers."

By contrast, in rural Lincoln County, drones are used more often for search and rescue and other kinds of emergencies. With the help of LCSO drone team, law enforcement and first responders can better assess an emergency situation.

"Here we can use them to look for missing people. If someone is lost, drones have thermal cameras and can detect people through body heat." Once the drone has located someone who was lost, the drone's laser gets the person's coordinates to game wardens on the ground, he explained.

Rogers said that drones are deployed in response to 911 calls. A drone can report back about emergency situations and for bad motor vehicle accidents, help with crash mapping measurements so the crash scene is cleared up more quickly. The Maine Department of Transportation has provided software for this use.

The LCSO drone team regularly helps first responders as, for example a past case of a house and field fire in Jefferson. "The fire department wanted to know the distance from their truck to the fire line, to determine whether they had enough hose to reach it," he said. Drones were deployed overhead to confirm the position of the trucks with respect to the fire. The view of the fire from the drone gave additional information helpful in fighting the fire.

Using drones as first responders also helps to de-escalate a situation and reduce deadly force outcomes, Rogers added so using a drone as the first responder is a much safer alternative for law enforcement.

A very recent example was on Monday evening, August 1, when drones helped locate a missing man who was suicidal. Advanced knowledge from the drone helped law enforcement locate him and respond safely. "Eventually," Rogers said, "he went to the hospital to get help." 

LSCO drone program was started by Sgt. Kevin Dennison, who served as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army. "He laid the groundwork for standard operating procedure," Rogers said. In 2022, according to a Register report, drug forfeiture funds were authorized to purchase additional drones for the program.

Rogers explained that there are three types of drones used by the office: "mini" drones which are palm-sized, medium drones which are about one foot long and large drones, the M30T, which has a 2-foot wing span and is about 1-1/2 feet tall. The larger drone also has redundant systems for safety.  Mini drones are used for indoors and medium drones are used for serious accident reconstruction.

Bi-weekly training for LCSO drone team members includes searches, flying indoors, flying at night and using thermal sensing. Members of law enforcement must have a Part 107 FAA pilot's license and test every two years to keep the license active.

Asked about privacy using drones, Rogers said that just as with other types of searches, probable cause and a search warrant is required for drone surveillance, if there is not exigent circumstances.  "Law enforcement drones have more privacy restrictions than law enforcement general aviation aircraft," he said, "because drones are more covert."

Going forward, the team hopes to purchase equipment that would allow a drone to carry a mini personal flotation device. With water accounting for about one third of the county, Rogers sees this as an opportunity to "Fly a drone out and drop a PFD to someone who is drowning and maybe save a life."

For more information about drones, visit https://www.faa.gov/uas. For specific questions, contact LCSO at 882-7332.