GOSHEN – Orange County Emergency Services Commissioner Peter Cirigliano has proposed a $3.7 million capital budget to establish a ‘drones as first responders’ program.
At present, many police and fire departments have portable drones that they deploy in the event of an emergency, but Cirigliano told Mid-Hudson News he wants to place eight permanently based drone systems that could be launched remotely from the EMS center in Goshen as the first eyes on an emergency.
“Having an aerial assessment will provide valuable intelligence for our first responders in the field offering aerial viewpoint really provides full situational awareness for our incident commander and also for the first responders,” he said. “So, it’s really capitalizing on the technology that’s out there. At emergency services we’ve been doing a heavy push in improving our infrastructure here from a technological standpoint, whether it be hardware, software, and really modernizing our 911 system.”
The commissioner envisions placing those drone systems on the rooftops of strategically located police, fire and county buildings so they can respond immediately to crime incidents, fires, floods, missing persons and other situations.
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