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How custom payloads aid SWAT operations

The LEMUR from BRINC Drones is designed from the ground up to aid tactical teams in barricade, hostage and active shooter situations

Brinc Lemur.JPG

The following is excerpted from a comprehensive report on the advanced features, capabilities and use cases of police drones. Click here to read the report in its entirety.

The first generation of drones carried a camera and that was about it. Soon, agencies discovered that they could use Velcro or tape to allow drones to carry lightweight items such as a tourniquet, hostage phone, keys or a spare magazine and ammunition. Several aftermarket remote carry-and-drop attachments for UAVs now are available.

BRINC Drones implemented one of the more interesting custom payloads is part of its USA-built LEMUR UAV itself – a cellphone with its own number – which lets crisis negotiators talk to suspects or hostages.

BRINC Drones was founded by teenager Blake Resnick after leaving the engineering program at Northwestern University at the age of 14. Having interned at DJI, McLaren and Tesla, he decided that he wanted to build an almost-indestructible self-righting drone.

The result is the LEMUR, designed from the ground up to aid tactical teams in barricade, hostage and active shooter situations through precision indoor flight – which uses another unique payload – a motorized breaching tool designed to smash tempered, automotive, and most residential glass – as seen here:

Instead of investing in autonomous flight capabilities, the nearly indestructible $8,999 LEMUR is designed for operators to fly into hard-to-navigate locations where GPS is only a dream. Unlike most other drones, the LEMUR can be flown into a building and scooted underneath a piece of furniture to watch and listen. Beefed-up radios allow the LEMUR to be controlled and to transmit audio and video even through thick concrete walls – such as a subway or sewer system.

Learn more about how the LEMUR aids SWAT operations:

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Ron LaPedis is an NRA-certified Chief Range Safety Officer, NRA, USCCA and California DOJ-certified instructor, is a uniformed first responder, and frequently writes and speaks on law enforcement, business continuity, cybersecurity, physical security and public/private partnerships.

He has been recognized as a Fellow of the Business Continuity Institute (FBCI), a Distinguished Fellow of the Ponemon Institute, Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP), and a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Contact Ron LaPedis

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