You got to hand it to police forces around the world. they will try just about anything to make sure they can keep an eye on what the bad guys are doing – even if it is a bird’s eye view. While remote controlled flying drones are all the rage Palm Bay, Florida, police are taking to the sky using motorized paragliders.
Using specially constructed bulletproof seats they will be wearing lawnmower style motors on their backs and patrol the skies looking for bad guys doing bad things like committing burglaries, stealing cars. In addition they will be used for missing children searches.
These paragliders will come equipped with radios, camera and GPS navigation units. One of the reasons they had to switch to the paraglider idea was that their original plan for using unmanned drones was killed by the FAA due to safety concerns.
“Our agency is pretty innovative, we like to think out of the box and experiment with new ideas. The more we fly these paragliders, the more uses we’ll find for them,” said Lieutenant Joe Eakins.
The $25,000 (£17,000) petrol-powered machines, purchased using proceeds from the sale of criminal assets, can fly at speeds up to 63mph and at altitudes anywhere between two inches off the ground and 18,000ft.
Lt Eakins and his colleague, Lt Mark Renkens, will generally operate at around 400ft, on the lookout for trouble below. They will also assist in search-and-rescue operations, photographing crime scenes, assessing damage after disasters such as fires and hurricanes – and even in keeping an eye out for sharks loitering off Palm Bay’s beaches
Source: Telegraph Online
