BY MICHAEL OLOHAN
OF PASCACK PRESS
RIVER VALE, N.J.—With four propellers each and the call signs Angel 1 and Angel 2, River Vale’s newest police vehicles are its smallest and most versatile.
Angel 1, which was purchased in September and needed only qualified officers to operate it, went into service July 24.
The company that trained the department in Angel 1’s safe, effective use, Archangel UAV Technologies, then donated another: Angel 2.
Drones to the rescue
Angel 1 is surprisingly fast, quiet, easily airborne, only 2-feet wide and can find suspects—or persons of interest—even when they think they’re hidden from the eyes of law enforcement.
It can fly below 400 feet—as permitted by the Federal Aviation Administration—and at speeds of more than 50 mph. It can be flown in inclement weather, further expanding its range of uses.
According to Police Chief William Giordano, it’s a new tool for local police with a multitude of uses, including investigating crime/accident scenes, setting up perimeters, and in crowd control.
With its onboard infrared camera, which can read body heat, it’s a natural in the search for missing persons and tracking people in densely wooded areas.
‘Search a vast area’
“We can put up a drone right away and search a vast area much quicker,” Giordano told Pascack Press.
Giordano said setting up a normal police perimeter might take 10 minutes but a drone can go up immediately to begin a search of a wide area.
The drone is officially called an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV. River Vale purchased the unit in September 2017 using funds collected mostly by civil forfeiture actions against drug defendants involved in criminal activity.
On July 23 and 24, Giordano hosted a two-day, 16-hour training session for drone pilot certification for police officers, drawing officers from Lyndhurst, Fort Lee, Roselle, Elizabeth, and the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office.
Some departments have drones, and many are working to acquire them, he said.
River Vale PD’s pilots
Three River Vale police officers—William MacRae, James Riepe and Tyler Mills—have become the borough’s first drone pilots. Standing by the sleek, black craft, the officers reviewed the control panel during a brief break in training. MacRae previously took a certification course. Riepe and Mills were certified in July.
On July 24, the River Vale Police Department became one of the first North Jersey departments to have three officers FAA-certified and ready to deploy drone technology to assist in local emergency operations.
Asked about their lead role in helping drone technology use countywide, Giordano downplayed their role but boosted the technology for all departments.
“To me it’s not important about being the lead. It’s a technology that all law enforcement can use,” Giordano said.
One course attendee, Detective Sgt. David Marrero of the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, said the drone technology could be used to help investigations involving accident reconstruction, crime scene reconstruction, fatal fires, fire investigations, and searching remote areas such as cliffs along the Palisades for missing hikers.
Marrero said his office frequently collaborates with the county Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office in investigations.
He said the Sheriff’s Office is set to obtain a drone.
“When you have an infrared camera you can just scan the side of the cliff” to search for a missing person, he said.
‘Spearheaded UAV boom’
“Chief Giordano has spearheaded this whole UAV boom in conjunction with him and the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association,” said Eddie Oropallo, chief executive officer and trainer with Archangel UAV Technologies LLC.
Archangel was hired by River Vale to purchase the drone and provide training in its use.
Giordano said he started looking at drone technology in 2014 and saw the advantage it offered to law enforcement.
Giordano said he was appointed in 2015 by Bergen County Police Chiefs Association to start investigating the uses of drone technology for police departments.
Oropallo’s drone pilot certification course covered how to operate a drone according to FAA regulations, pre-flight checks, maintaining FAA flight log books, mission planning, flight practice, camera settings, UAV training drills for police, chain of evidence, flight crew responsibilities, and data management.
He said he’s given the course to at least 16 police agencies in New Jersey and New York.
Another local drone
To thank River Vale’s police department for efforts to boost drone technology, Archangel UAV Technologies donated another drone following the recent certification course.
Giordano said the newly donated drone, which has a higher resolution camera and different technology than the department’s first drone, would be Angel 2.
Giordano said residents will be kept up to date on the drone’s use via the department’s Facebook page and website. He said the department’s three certified officers can pilot the new airborne police drone for when it’s needed.
“It’s a tool; it’s a tool that you want to have available when you need it,” Giordano said.
