Omaha Police sees big success with drone program

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - The Omaha Police Department launched a new drone program late last year and we are getting a look at the impact it’s already having.

The department now has highly-trained, skilled pilots helping to assist with anything and everything from rescue missions to traffic accidents to searching for suspects.

OPD showed images from a search where an elderly man with dementia took off from home. The drone team was able to spot him lying down on train tracks with a train headed in that direction.

“Just finding this one patient on the tracks… what price tag do you put on that? OPD Lt. Jim Pauly said. “To be able to stop a train, to be able to put all of that packaged together, it just puts the exclamation point on the value of what we get out of these drones.”

The department has used its drones to help in the search for missing autistic children and at crime scenes. Drone aided in the search for the missing boy at NP Dodge Park last week.

The goal is to have drones available at all precincts in the near future to assist in all types of calls.

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