Shreveport Looks to a Drone Program to Help Fight Crime

I was chatting with a veteran police officer earlier this month and he talked about all the changes in technology in fighting crime. Shreveport is looking at a program to put more drones into place to speed up response times to crime scenes. The officer I talked to says that could definitely help, but he wants to remind city leaders that drones can't handcuff suspects and drive them to jail. He says you still have to maintain an adequate force of officers. And he warns that our numbers continue to decline.

But the Shreveport Public Safety Committee saw a full demonstration of the drones and all the help they could be to the department.

A two-week test of these drones show that they are quicker to crime scenes that patrol officers. Shreveport used two docking stations during this test of the autonomous Skydio drones and the drones beat officers to emergency scenes 74% of the time during 127 flights. Residents in the MLK area, Pines Road and southeast Shreveport often complain about response times and these drones could help.

Protecting Our First Responders Before They Arrive

The test showed the drones can help save our officers. During one call, the drone was able to spot a suspect sneaking up on a car....something an officer on the ground could not see.

How Will This Program Be Staffed

The big question is how this program will be run. Police Chief Wayne Smith says he is hoping to bring back some retired police officers to come back to help with this program.

City leaders will be working to find the money to fully fund this program if we move in this direction.