Sandy Police expands drone program in resolving SWAT situations

SANDY — They are increasingly becoming a valuable tool for looking for missing people, reconstructing crime scenes, and tracking suspects.

Drones are growing in numbers in local police departments, playing an important role for SWAT teams, as officers say was shown by a case this week.

“A couple of nights ago we did have a male who had barricaded himself inside of a residence here,” Sandy Police Sgt. Greg Moffitt said.

“One of the tactics that was used was to use that drone. With a search warrant in hand, we were able to make an entry point into the house and we flew a drone in there and we used that drone to help look for that suspect.”

According to officers, the operator used the drone to clear the house.

“A thermal camera was then utilized to locate the suspect inside the home,” Moffitt said. “We still have to go in and make sure, but we can get a really good preliminary clearing of the house by utilizing this as a tool.”

In previous years, Moffitt said officers would have possibly had to use a robot—which holds its own limitations—or enter the residence themselves often at their own hazard.

He questioned whether a drone may have even made a difference in the circumstance where he was shot during a SWAT operation in September 2021.

At the time, Moffitt was the shield operator and was first inside an apartment when he was met with gunfire.

“I don’t know that it would have changed my circumstance—maybe,” Moffitt said. “Had we utilized maybe some different tactics, we may have come to a different resolution. I don’t know.”

Moffitt said the department now aims to have a drone operator available on each shift and a handful of officers have been trained to fly in close spaces.

One of those officers, Detective Michael Yoakum, demonstrated Thursday how he utilizes a drone to clear a building during SWAT operations.

“(I am) just kind of getting the team a feel of what I can see, what they’re going to be going into,” Yoakum said as he used a video game-like controller to maneuver the drone.

He said drones have proven to be a vital tool in SWAT settings.

“We’re able to go inside a house, you know, without exposing our officers or SWAT operators to any kind of danger that is unknown,” Yoakum said.

Moffitt said the department has continued to expand its drone assets in recent months, including with a program the city has called “drone first-responder.”

“As a city, we’ve now purchased a larger drone,” Moffitt said. “That drone can be operated remotely. Most of our pilots on patrol are flying what’s called line-of-site. We do have a federal waiver that allows us to fly a separate drone that we have located centrally within the city. We share that with the fire department as well and we can launch that drone remotely and help respond to calls and give some overview.”

Officer Ryan Johnson, another drone operator in the department, said the devices have been incredibly valuable.

“If we can send a drone ahead of us instead of sending one of us first to get an idea of what’s going on, honestly that helps us significantly,” Johnson said. “If we have to build a plan around something—develop a tactical plan if we need to—it gives us the advantage on a lot of things.”