BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

CANTON -- The St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office wants to use a state terrorism prevention program grant to purchase a drone that can be used for rescue operations or criminal investigations.

The St. Lawrence County legislature’s Operations Committee unanimously approved accepting the grant funding during their August meeting.

Sheriff Brooks Bigwarfe spoke and said the county currently has to borrow a drone from St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Police, and because of that

“sometimes it takes hours to get to a location.”

“If someone gets lost, they have infrared drones … other county agencies can use it, they need a photograph of something,” Bigwarfe said, adding that other police agencies in the county would be able to borrow the drone if they needed it.

Legislator David Forsythe, R-Lisbon, asked if law enforcement would be able to use it to look at things that may be happening or growing on a property, given the time of year.

“As far as flying a drone over someone’s house or a municipality, it’s kind of a free range thing,” the sheriff answered. “I’m not going to be using it to fly over someone’s house for no reason.”

Bigwarfe added that the drone’s use would be logged and he would be aware of when it’s in the air.

“I will know when the drone’s being used. It’s not that frequent where we’re going to be out there every single day,” he said.

Legislator Kevin Acres, R-Madrid, asked if the drone could be used to produce evidence subject to discovery in a criminal court proceeding.

“It’s all under discovery, if you’re using it for crime purposes,” the sheriff said, adding that searching for a lost person wouldn’t be.

The drone could cost as much as $40,000 to $50,000. The grant approved by the legislative committee is $44,151.

Forsythe asked if anyone in the department would be able to use it, or if there would be designated officers.

“You don’t want someone who’s a novice operating that unit,” Bigwarfe said, citing the high price. “There is training that goes along with most of those units … training is going to be part of the cost.”