TYLER — Drones are used for lots of things.
The latest, and possibly most important, is helping out law enforcement.
The Tyler Police Department can now apply for a drone permit from the Federal Aviation Administration. now that the City Council approved the application in Wednesday's meeting,
Several East Texas agencies already use drones for public safety, including Smith County, and Tyler Police Department Assistant Chief Rusty Jacks said a drone would save them lots of time and money.
"Right now we have to call DPS to get a helicopter for something," Jacks said. "Having a drone provides us the opportunity to economically do search and rescue, missing persons, aerial photography, those sort of things."
Jacks said the helicopters have to come in from other cities, and they're incredibly expensive.
The drone TPD already purchased cost just $6,000, and all the money came from a donation.
"It's one of the fastest growing industries in the country right now, drone technology is," Jacks said.
Tyler Mayor Martin Heines said teh city knows how much a drone can help the police department.
"From a public safety standpoint, we've had several instances where we have needed to either find a lost person, and by being able to have a drone we can actually search certain areas much faster," Heines said.
As for privacy concerns, he wanted to assure the public that the drone will be closely monitored by the city and the FAA.
"There is going to be so much government code, and so much internal policies, that we'll require from the police department to make sure that they do not get out of any sort of boundaries," Heines said.
Jacks echoed that sentiment, saying the people of Tyler have nothing to worry about when it comes to the drone being invasive.
"We're talking about just a basic commercial drone that's very noisy and obvious," Jacks said. "You really couldn't spy on someone with it if you wanted to."
He said the potential to save lives, from missing children to elderly people with dementia, is what makes this drone so crucial to the force.
Council's approval was just the first step in the FAA process.
Once the department submits their application, it can take up to four months to get approved.