The Culver City Police Department began a pilot program on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in February of this year, and the city is still seeking input from concerned citizens.  The use of the UAVs, which local listing agent Martin Feinberg notes are commonly called drones, within the Culver City Real Estate area was initially approved by the city council, with provisions.

According to the Drone Pilot Program Overview, “UAVs are lightweight, relatively inexpensive, and can be deployed quickly in the field to assist first responders address rapidly unfolding emergency incidents. These community safety tools are reactive and incident driven, and are never used for routine patrol. Bound by strict policies that control how they can be used, UAVs have proven to be an extremely valuable public safety tool during the first half of the pilot program. We currently have fourteen pilots on staff, all of which are licensed through the FAA.”

The drones can only be used under strict supervision by a senior officer, and are only allowed to be used for specific assignments when helping the Culver City Police and Fire Departments.

The drone was recently used to assist firefighters in the fire at the 99 cent only store on Washington Blvd., and has been used on other assignments as well.

A community meeting will be held on November 7 at 6:30 pm at the Culver City Senior Center to review the program and gather more input.  Martin Feinberg, Realtor, encourages those residents who are looking for more information on how the program is being administered to check out the report on the Drone Pilot Program at this link below.

http://www.culvercitypd.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=18219

The meeting will be held at the Culver City Senior Center, which is located at 4095 Overland Ave at the corner of Overland and Culver Blvd.