Law enforcement turning to special drones to find missing person
The Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office utilizes drones that run a special color recognition program used in missing persons cases.
It’s part of a new approach in the county to finding possible clues in the woods when someone goes missing.
“When we’re in rescue mode — boots on the ground, canine, foot searches, fixed wing, but then as the time goes on, we maybe need to do some data collection, we need to map an area,” said Earl Bakke, a volunteer drone pilot with ScenePhoto360, who helped Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office during a recent search.
Bakke launches a drone that hovers above the search area, taking pictures of the specific area.
Once it lands, the drone’s images are analyzed by a special computer program — that looks for a unique color down to the pixel.
Bakke sets the program to look …