The Columbus Division of Police owns four helicopters, but the department doesn't have a drone program.
Many police departments around Ohio use drones, or plan to buy them soon. The Ohio State Highway Patrol, sheriff's offices in Franklin and Hamilton County and the Dublin Police Department have drones. Ohio State University President Ted Carter told WOSU the university's police department also plans to purchase the flying cameras.
Some officials view drones as a viable replacement for helicopters in the future.
Columbus Deputy Chief Nicholas Konves said he isn't ruling out purchasing drones in the future. Konves said he has doubts about drones being able to replace helicopters.
"Drones aren't necessarily going to be able to stay up as long as a helicopter," Konves said. "And depending on the severity of a situation, of foot chasings, (or things) of that nature, we see them more of being able to work hand-in-hand versus one replacing another."
A spokesman for the Columbus Department of Public Safety said the city spends over $2.1 million every year for maintenance, fuel and insurance on its helicopters. The city sought to sell one of its five helicopters in 2023 for $3.4 million.
City officials said the Bell 407 helicopter was sold that year for about $4.1 million.
Dublin Police spent $492,000 to purchase four new drones for its three-year program. The city of Dublin also recently spent $238,000 to purchase two robots to patrol a parking garage near the city's library and a plaza in Bridge Park.
Dublin Police are also making the drones available for mutual aid requests by other police agencies in the area.
Dublin Police Deputy Chief Greg Lattanzi said he thinks there is an opportunity to think about drones replacing police helicopters in the future. He agreed with Konves that there are some drawbacks.
"There certainly is the same concept as the helicopter because it does have cameras, night vision, thermal imaging. So a lot of the same features that are utilized with a helicopter," Lattanzi said. "However, there obviously is flight time restrictions with the drone that you wouldn't necessarily have with a helicopter."
Hamilton County Sheriff's Office Lt. Steve Sabers said the county sold their two helicopters because of maintenance costs. Sabers said the department's 16 drones can currently only stay up for about 40 minutes, but that could change in the future.
"I haven't heard of an instance in the last two years where we've said 'Man I really wish we had this pilot in this helicopter,'" Sabers said. "We were able to go all in and get these drones because of the money we were saving from the sale of our helicopters."
Sabers said helicopters have some difficulties with them besides money. He said finding pilots is difficult, especially if the sheriff wants to fly the helicopters around the clock.
Sabers also said once battery life expands, he does see drones as a viable replacement, except in rare cases like a police chase.
"Someday we're going to get to where there's going to be fixed-wing for law enforcement," Sabers said. "The flight time is where we're at. We're at like a 40 minute max. So I don't think they replace them for those bigger long-term deals."
Sabers said their drones will be set up at three "hives" around the county. Dublin also plans to distribute the home bases of its drones around the city.
Konves said Columbus does utilize Franklin County drones for some operations. He gave SWAT barricades as an example where police are able to get real time updates on the situation from the drones.
"It could use a similar manner to what we're using our helicopters for, obviously not used to replace them (because) they have some different functions, but yeah, I do see a benefit in drone use," Konves said.
Konves said it is premature to say whether the city will invest in drones once their helicopters age out of being usable.
