Full Notification

UPDATE: Photos
Please see the attached photo's of Saturday's Drone demonstration. The WIlmington Police Department would like to thank Paige Fitzgerald from DEMA who volunteered to be our rescue swimmer.

Original Message:
The Wilmington Department of Police is proud to announce a Drone Demonstration on Saturday, April 8^th, 2017 at 1000 hours. The location will be Tubman Park, located across from the train station parking garage on Rosa Parks Drive, City of Wilmington, Delaware 19801. The purpose will be to formally announce our Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Program, functions and demonstrate the capabilities of our new Search and Rescue (SAR) aircraft which we took delivery of in the middle of March.
The demonstration will consist of placing a swimmer in distress calling for help in the Christina River. The swimmer will be deployed with the Wilmington Police Marine Unit boat which will be positioned nearby after the swimmer enters the water. The SAR aircraft will be piloted by M/Sgt. Adam Ringle and an additional pilot who will fly over to the swimmer in distress and deploy a USCG approved life ring or rescue stick inflatable flotation device from the drone, to prevent the drowning victim from being submerged in the water until the rescue boat would be able to reach the swimmer. The drone will remain over the victim hovering and continue to monitor the scene until the boat picks-up the swimmer. The drone will then return to the area it took off from. In addition to the water rescue demonstration, Wilmington Police will display our entire fleet of aircraft and show the various missions they are capable of performing.
The Wilmington Department of Police UAS Program is run out of the Forensic Services Unit under the command of M/Sgt. Adam Ringle who services as the Director of Flight Operations. The unit currently has three FAA certified pilots available and three more in training.  The program provides support to many police department functions, has FAA approval to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including night time operations and can provide mutual-aid assistance to any agency requesting assistance for UAS operations. UAS fleet currently consists of 5 total aircraft, 4 operational and one dedicated to training. The aircraft consist of one DJI Phantom 4 Pro, three , Inspire 1 Pro’s and one DJI M600 Pro. In addition to the aircraft itself, we possess different interchangeable camera options for different mission sets including thermal imaging (FLIR).
Safety is always our highest priority and is never taken lightly under any circumstances. All missions are carefully evaluated utilizing a risk assessment model and checklist before the flight is accepted. We follow all FAA rules and have developed an excellent working relationship with our FAA partners including air traffic control (ATC) operations at Wilmington Airport.