It’s been several months since the Webb County Sheriff's Office began its battle against motor vehicle thefts. But now a piece of equipment used in their anti-theft operation is paying off in other ways. Tense scenes of authorities swarming a northwest Laredo park after shots were heard right across the river. While some law enforcement officers stood guard from the ground last Thursday, a select few were up in the air perched in the terra-hawk. Witnessing action that couldn't be seen by the naked eye. “You see the Mexican army capturing the person committing a crime here in the U.S. I believe he was using a hand gun and shooting at police.” The hawk is the latest piece of equipment being used by the sheriff's office auto-theft unit, scoping out would-be burglars and car thieves. “We’re gona go up about 30 feet up in the air.” Believe it or not the terra hawk has caught plenty of crimes in progress from burglaries of vehicles even domestic disputes and accidents as they happen. We also got thermal so at nighttime you can see who’s walking toward the car. With its capability of zooming into to an object over half a mile away, its easy to spot suspicious vehicles or people. Sheriffs' investigators say the hawk is being proven remarkably useful in many situations other than in parking lots. “Out on a ranch you’re able to see drug lords crossing the river.” “It’s something even for other law enforcement agencies. They’re very impressed with the equipment we have.” And sheriff's officials say the Hawk’s camera can record the crimes, making it an evidence retention unit too. “Everything that’s happened in the border area this is something that’s needed.” “We are watching them watching the suspicious activity going on Authorities were able to apprehend a few people over the holidays. The hawk was originally purchased a few months ago for a little over $171,000 through an operation stone garden grant.
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Norfolk, VA
Norfolk, Va. - Norfolk police officers have spent $130,000 on a machine unlike anything ever seen before in Hampton Roads.
Summer festivals draw hundreds of thousands to downtown Norfolk. Each year police struggle to keep tabs on such huge crowds where sometimes thieves blend in and kids get lost.
The answer this year will be an odd truck - it can hoist a pair of patrolmen more than 20 feet in the air.
"One officer, two officers will be able to survey just a huge area," said Officer Chris Amos.
It's brand new technology designed for border patrols, not urban police departments. In fact, no police department in Hampton Roads is using a vehicle like this. The concept is so new only one bidder answered Norfolk's request, with a six figure product essentially based on a common piece of construction equipment.
Norfolk's buying it with a federal grant, so that means it comes from everyone's tax money. It will cost the same as four police cars, or more than 100 police bicycles. Officer Chris Amos says it will be crucial for controlling summer crowds, so it's worth the money.
"What it will cost, through the grant, we're certainly going to get our money's worth and then some," Officer Amos said.
The idea is pretty simple: if you put a police officer up in the air at 10 feet, 15 feet, 20 feet in the air, the police officer can see much more all around him. The vantage point is higher, so the officer can be far more effective.
It is fully operational within three minutes of arrival.
Norfolk police say they will also use it at college football games and any other times crowds gather. Police expect the Dallas company to deliver it by July.
Dallas, TX
Dallas police will get a boost this weekend while watching the crowds celebrating St. Patrick's Day along Greenville Avenue.
TerraHawk, a Dallas company, is loaning its Mobile Utility Surveillance Tower to the department. The mobile tower can be quickly moved to wherever its needed. It extends 25 feet from the back of a van and includes two special video cameras, one of them infrared, giving police a unique perceptive on any crowd.
"It allows one officer in an elevated position to be actually able to visualize what's going on in the crowd and respond and command his troops accordingly," said TerraHawk's Marty James.
The MUST starts at $119,900. TerraHawk said it's selling the first one to an unnamed police department in Virginia and hopes Dallas police are so impressed by it that DPD will find the money to buy one.
DPD to Have Eyes in Sky for St. Patrick's Day Partiers
"We're trying to let them do some testing with the product in actual, real-life situations to give them a grasp of the capabilities this piece of equipment offers," James said.
Neighbors living along Greenville Avenue said they are grateful for the extra help.
"You pop this thing up, no one has any doubt they're being watched, which is always a good thing," said Mark Rieves, of the Vickery Place Neighborhood Association. "So someone who might be thinking about doing something they probably shouldn't, they're going to think twice."
The Dallas Police Department recently got a hand with crowd control and surveillance on the midway at the State Fair of Texas from the elevated capsule of the TerraHawk M.U.S.T. Major police departments in the United States, along with Border Patrol and Texas Border Sheriff's Departments are enlisting M.U.S.T. technology to aid in their efforts to provide better domestic security and observe and secure the Texas/Mexico border.
Midway - State Fair of Texas Dallas, Texas, October 9, 2009
International Association of Chiefs of Police Show - Denver, Colorado
The TerraHawk M.U.S.T. was recently previewed by law enforcement from all over the world at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Show in Denver, Colorado. Police One, an online law enforcement magazine, was first to break the story of this new technology. Link to article below.
