SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Cochise County Sheriff's Office recently certified 10 deputies as drone pilots, expanding a program designed to improve safety and response times for search and rescue operations.
Drones are becoming a popular tool for law enforcement in Cochise County, providing visuals of unknown scenes and hard-to-reach places before deputies arrive. Cochise County Sheriff’s Office Commander John Gjerde emphasized the importance of the expanding fleet.
"The big thing is safety and using technology and staying up with technology, because that is, it is the future," Gjerde said.
"It's all about safety and response time," Gjerde said.
During search and rescue missions, the drones can bring supplies to people who need to be rescued.
"That's time that's kind of not measurable, because it's so important. And when somebody's dehydrated out in the desert, sometimes it could be minutes, and you just don't have that time to try to find a way to get to them on foot," Gjerde said.
With more pilots available, the sheriff's office is looking to buy additional drones using grant funding. However, elevating price tags are delaying the process.
"You can't use certain drones. They need to be blue certified through an American companies, USA companies. So with that, it's just a little bit harder to get the drones, because they cost a lot more when they're made in the United States," Gjerde said.
Additional drones being built to help the agency on the border are also facing delays.
"They're still in the in the production phases, or whatever, trying to fine tune that," Gjerde said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
