Real-life RoboCops! US police are turning to drones to fight crime and help civilians
Police and fire departments are finding new uses for the remote-controlled aircraft, including equipping them with heat sensors to find fugitives
No longer a novelty, drones are becoming an everyday tool for more police and fire departments, new research has found.
The number of public safety agencies with drones has more than doubled since the end of 2016, according to data collected by the Centre for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York.
The centre estimated that just over 900 police, sheriff, fire and emergency agencies now have drones, with Texas, California and Wisconsin leading the way.
While many law enforcement drone units are just getting started and are in place in just a fraction of the public safety agencies around the country, police and fire departments are continuing to find new uses for the remote-controlled aircraft.
They are being deployed to take photos of car accidents, guide firefighters through burning buildings and search for missing people and murder suspects.