Florida police go airborne for crime surveillance

A US police department is training officers to fly powered paragliders for search and rescue operations and criminal surveillance.
The department in Palm Bay, Florida, is training four officers during a six-month trial of the equipment, in a first-of-its-kind initiative codenamed Operation Soar.
Training will see the officers patrol the skies looking for burglars, car thieves and missing children, equipped with radios, cameras and GPS navigation systems. The paragliders feature a bulletproof cockpit and are fitted with a standby parachute.
Police in Palm Bay had previously hoped to conduct aerial surveillance over the area using unmanned drones, but the initiative was not allowed to go ahead following safety issues from the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Our agency is pretty innovative, we like to think outside of the box and experiment with new ideas. The more we fly these paragliders, the more uses we’ll find for them,” said Lieutenant Joe Eakins, who is undergoing the training.
“We can see a lot from the air and it`s an easy and inexpensive way to bring aerial search capabilities to everyday law enforcement.
“By being more visible from the air than on the ground, we hope our aerial presence will also be a deterrent.”
The paragliders cost $25,000 (£17,000), are petrol powered and have been purchased using proceeds from the sale of criminal assets.
They can fly at speeds of up to 63mph and at altitudes anywhere between two inches off the ground and 18,000ft.
Lt Eakins said he and his colleagues will generally operate at around 400ft.
“As well as general surveillance, we hope to use these machines to assist in search-and-rescue operations, photograph crime scenes, assess damage after disasters such as fires and hurricanes, and even in keeping an eye out for sharks loitering off Palm Bay’s beaches.”