A family near New Carlisle was relieved last week when St. Joseph County police found their missing son, who has developmental disabilities, hiding in a cornfield in the dark. The officer found the boy with a thermal imaging drone.
Corporal Bryce LaCosse is one of two sheriff’s department officers who are trained to use drones. LaCosse says he’s used them to catch suspects, monitor SWAT situations and reconstruct crash scenes.
"Personally I love the drone. It's always in my squad car with me. Any chance I have to put it up, I will," LaCosse says.
LaCosse had planned to use drones in some past missing person cases but the people had been found before he could get it up in the air. In this case, the search had gone on for three hours and as darkness fell, the officers’ K-9 helpers were getting tired.
Finally, the drone’s thermal imaging picked up a moving shape that LaCosse could tell wasn’t a deer. He found the boy, who was nervous at first but relieved, along with his parents, of course.
"Once we found him, I was the happiest I could ever be, just for the fact that we located him, he was OK, and that this technology that we have is being put to use, and it's put to very good use."
