CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATIONS & DRONE TECHNOLOGY

As a former assistant district attorney i recalled going to crime scenes with some law enforcement officers, a term we would call “riding the shift” and only having a camera, a notepad and some recording device.  In a 3 year time period i only remember joining an nypd helicopter to capture neighborhood layouts so that we can created exhibits for trial.  Oh, how i wish that i had unmanned drones available to collect additional data that could gps aligned, to be able to create 2d & 3d models of a crime scene.

As a former criminal defense lawyer who specialized in homicide cases i have been to thousands of scenes related to the alleged offenses, distances from the crime to where the defendant was arrested, locations that human testimony can not describe as accurately as an orthomosaic captured  by drone mapping.  The amount of time that it would take our investigators to walk or travel by foot or car could be cut down exponentially.  Often a drone 200 or 300 feet in the sky can not be detected or heard from below unlike a private investigator browsing streets, businesses and dangerous areas.

A drone can capture hundreds of photos of a football field in less than 5 minutes, inch by inch, foot by foot.  and process those photos into a mosaic poster yet still retaining each inch of the field.  An investigator, law enforcement or a law firm would not have that advantage without drone technology.

In the modern world of investigations drones are a tool of efficiently, safety and most important accuracy.