According to an article by Cleveland.com:
Attorney General Dave Yost is looking to give Ohio police departments a lift with acquiring more – and more powerful – surveillance drones.
Yost said in an interview Tuesday that he’s asked his office to assess how the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation can help smaller law-enforcement agencies acquire aerial drones and assist larger departments with getting more powerful and sophisticated unmanned aircraft, with features like infrared cameras.
The Attorney General said that drones can be a “game-changer” for police facing hostage situations or other circumstances in which having new lines of sight can help them.
“We’re trying to get a sense of what that need is, and hopefully we’ll be in a better position to answer that here (at the) beginning of next year, first quarter sometime,” Yost said.
Yost clarified that he’s only looking to help law enforcement with unarmed drones. ‘We’re not gonna have flying militarized weapons platforms,” he said.
Police departments in larger Ohio cities have launched drone programs in recent years – including, most recently, Columbus, which began a pilot project a couple of weeks ago.
The Cleveland Division of Police has had drones since 2022, but they were grounded for several months starting in November 2024 after police violated city policy by using a drone to monitor protesters outside Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne’s house. Cleveland police resumed using drones last August to monitor the crowd at a Machine Gun Kelly concert.
Last month, the Ohio House of Representatives passed Republican-sponsored legislation that, if enacted, would require police to obtain a warrant in most circumstances before they could use drones for surveillance purposes, with exceptions for things like disaster response and traffic accident investigations.
The legislation, House Bill 251, is currently pending in the Ohio Senate.
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Be sure to visit the BWU Technology Partnerships Initiative website to learn more about how our NEOFIX program drives economic growth, promotes policy and infrastructure to improve drone safety and efficiency in various industries, and ensures that drone technology is being used responsibly.