By PAUL HAMMEL
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts briefly took the controls Thursday of one of the drones used by the Nebraska State Patrol to investigate and reconstruct vehicle accidents and to search for hidden suspects and lost children.
“That’s very cool,” Ricketts said, after handing the controls back to Trooper Ravi Singh.
Singh is one of 33 troopers that are FAA-trained to operate the agencies’ 36 Autel drones, 33 of which cost $3,000 each. Three others, which cost about $8,000 each, are equipped with thermal imaging technology, which aids in finding hidden suspects.
Col. John Bolduc, superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol, said the drones have been a tremendous time saver when troopers are investigating accidents. They are also a safety measure, he said, since they get troopers off the roadway faster.
Ricketts said it used to take an average of 2 1/2 hours to investigate an accident, but with a drone, which takes video that is used to measure distances, the average time has been cut to 53 minutes.
The governor said drones also cut the amount of time a roadway has to be closed for accident reconstruction, saving motorists time and money.
“It’s really a game changer,” said Capt. Jason Scott.
In the past year, the Patrol has deployed drones 185 times. They helped find a suspect hiding in a tree in Red Willow County and helped identify hot spots in the wildfires that consumed 44,000 acres in southwest Nebraska.
They are also programmed with a “follow mode” to track suspects on foot.
Officials said the drones will not be used to catch speeders but may eventually have the ability to monitor active shooter events.