This article was originally published in the Harrison County, WV News & Journal on April 10, 2023
On my recent trip to Washington, DC, I was working in my role with Bearing Advisors, a company that was started in 2020, and we were introducing our new client, BRINC Drones, to local government officials from throughout the United States. BRINC has been getting a lot of attention due to the rollout of their newest drone, the LEMUR 2, which was introduced in Seattle, Washington, the home of BRINC Drones. The video of the event is quite impressive and the LEMUR 2 lived up to it expectations by flying up to a window and breaking it and then entering the room.
Drones are fast becoming a valuable tool for public safety departments throughout the world and U.S. departments are starting to catch up. The drone can do many jobs and access many places that previously required a human being to put themselves at risk. Think of a house fire and the danger it presents when firefighters need to ensure that all occupants of the structure are out of danger. A drone can fly up to a second-floor window, break it and enter and assess the situation. Or an armed person is held up in a building and police are trying to locate them. The drone can access the building and conduct a search without a police officer having to enter the building. Once found, the drone can land and open a secure phone connection with the police outside and hopefully, peacefully resolve the issue.
BRINC is the brainchild of Blake Resnick, a 23-year-old inventor who was spurred to action when a mass shooting occurred in his hometown of Las Vegas on October 1, 2017. A shooter had opened fire on a country music festival from his hotel room and killed 61 people and injured at least 413. Resnick’s best friend was near the shooting and called him for help. He became obsessed with how technology could have helped first responders stop the shooting. After forming his company, he moved to Seattle, Washington to be close to a high-tech workforce.
Drones have been around for several years and are now being designed for a variety of uses, both commercial and governmental. Companies like Amazon and Walmart are experimenting with drone delivery of small packages and governments are looking at drones to deliver things like heart defibrillators and Narcan, the drug overdose medicine. How will all these drones navigate the already crowded skies? The Federal Aviation Administration is currently looking at how drones are used and what type of regulations are needed to safely operate these versatile vehicles in the sky.
While it might be a few years before you can have your Big Mac delivered by drone, the technology is moving so fast that new uses are being developed every week. Drones are here to stay, and they have the potential to impact so many aspects of our lives. So, the next time you are looking into the sky, that bird just might be a drone!
