Five years after helping to pioneer the use of drones in suburban law enforcement, Arlington Heights police are at it again.

The department in May deployed its first — and believed to be the region’s first — Drone Response Vehicle, a specially fitted SUV from which an officer can launch a drone in less than a minute.

“Time,” Chief Nicholas Pecora replied when we asked about the main benefit of the department’s new addition. “You don’t want a delayed response. You want to have it out on the street and up in the air as soon as possible.”

From the outside, the squad looks like any other Arlington Heights police SUV — except for the new graphics and black-and-white color scheme the department is rolling out.

Pop open the rear hatch, however, and you’ll find a patrol vehicle unlike any you’ve seen before. Sliding black drawers contain one of the department’s three drones and some accessories, including an attachable 110-decibel speaker and blue-and-red flashing lights.

Then there’s the piece de resistance, a 32-inch television monitor that slides out and provides pilots a large, high-definition view of what the drone is seeing from 200 feet above. It also can send live footage back to the police station, a command vehicle and even other officers’ cellphones.

“We’ve taken the drone experience to the next level,” Pecora said.

Drone trailblazers

Back in 2019, Arlington Heights was among the first suburban municipal police departments to add drones. Today, the department has three drones in service and 26 officers licensed to fly them.

Running the operation is Sgt. Brian Clarke, who told us the department has had more drone flights in the past 10 months than in the previous five years combined. They’ve been used to locate missing children and seniors, watch for problems at village events including last month’s Memorial Day parade, track down fleeing suspects and gather evidence at crime and crash scenes.

“Before drones, when we had a fatal crash, we’d have the road closed down for four to eight hours to investigate,” said Clarke, who designed the Drone Response Vehicle. “Now we can set the drone to cover a grid pattern over the scene and have the road reopened in 30 to 60 minutes.”

The department plans to have the vehicle on the street almost 24/7, and thanks to a battery charger Clarke installed, the drone can be in the air for hours at a time with just a quick, 30-second break for a battery swap.

Among its other key features is a thermal detection camera that allows police to locate people through their body temperature, even when otherwise hidden or obscured by darkness.

“It’s really a game-changer for us,” Clarke said. “We can search an area for body-heat temperature and clear it quickly and move on.

“Or in a case when you have an armed suspect out there, maybe in a wooded or covered area, you can find them through their heat signature, surround the person and call them out without having to send any officers in there,” he added. “Everyone goes home safely.”

Money matters

All this technology doesn’t come cheap. Turning a regular patrol SUV into a Drone Response Vehicle costs about $5,000, on top of the $6,000 price tag for the department’s newest drone and its features.

Who’s paying for all this? Pecora told us drug dealers are picking up the tab, via asset forfeiture funds the department receives through a partnership with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“It’s an opportunity for us to spend drug dealers’ money to benefit law enforcement,” he said.

More to the story

Police and prosecutors announced in late May that two Elmhurst teens face hate crime charges alleging they carved swastikas and Nazi phrases into playground equipment at a school. A DuPage County judge ordered the older suspect, 18-year-old Christopher Jackson, held in custody while awaiting trial because he’s a danger to the community.

Last week, we saw the petition for detention that prosecutors filed, and there’s a lot more to the situation.

Christopher Jackson, 18, of Elmhurst
Courtesy of DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office

According to the petition, two Jewish students at Edison Elementary School found Nazi phrases and swastikas carved into plastic playground equipment on May 20. Police started investigating. Then, per the petition, Jackson came to the police station.

He told police he was worried about his friend, the 17-year-old co-defendant, because the boy had told him he wanted to kill his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. The boy had drafted a plan, according to the prosecutors’ petition.

The two also spent the weekend watching Nazi- and school shooting-themed movies and killed and skinned a rabbit, and the minor choked a dog twice, Jackson told police.

The 17-year-old was admitted by his parents to a psychiatric hospital in Chicago, and released Monday. On Tuesday, a juvenile court judge ordered he be held pretrial.

On Thursday, defense attorney John Fotopoulos argued for the release of Jackson, saying prosecutors had not proven he was a danger and that there were not any conditions of release that would mitigate any threat.

He highlighted that Jackson went to police, and that there was no evidence of a skinned rabbit or of injuries to the dog.

“At most what we have here is defacement of public property,” Fotopoulos said.

DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Bugos disagreed, and ordered that Jackson remain in custody. Jackson intends to appeal.

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