Drones will soon be used for operations at the Welsh Police Department

WELSH, La. (KPLC) - Welsh will have an extra eye in the sky as the police department purchased two drones in recent weeks.

The department decided to add the new tech after Jeff Davis Sheriff’s Office used a drone to find a suspect.

“We thought that was like a really cool advanced way of trying to locate somebody we’re like, okay, well maybe we should get with the program and do it too,” Lead Drone Operations Officer Austin Mouton said.

The two drones, “Starsky” and “Hutch,” are expected to be used in a variety of scenarios.

“It’s all situationally dependent. It depends on what kind of call it is, whether it be someone calls in a missing juvenile, a runaway subject, or whether someone flees a vehicle in a pursuit, stuff like that, because these things have advanced tracking,” Mouton said.

The department spent about $8,000 on both of the new drones.

Officer Mouton flew “Starsky” to show us its perspective and cool features.

“This is a very clear view and it even has infrared for nigh time vision that really helps out, and you can really distinguish with how clear and concise the infrared is between like animals, and there’s a bird flying with it right now,” Mouton said.

These drones can go up to 400 feet high and fly in a 7-mile radius.

Officers are taking courses to operate “Starsky” and “Hutch.”

“Just to get the officers familiar with these drones and comfortable flying them before we actually implement this. Everyone is pretty much new to this. I flew drones in the past but nothing of this scale,” said Mouton.

We’re told the drones will be operational in the next few weeks.