The Renton Police Department is rolling out a new weapon in the fight against crime: drones.

The department will be the first in the region to use unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with cameras and “photogrammetry” software to get a new view on crime scenes.

According to police, the drones will allow them to process crime scenes quicker and more accurately than in the past.

“We can be in and out of a location in minutes,” Commander David Leibman said this week, adding, “Doing it the old way was very inaccurate compared to the new technology.”

Leibman said the drone’s ability to take photos from above a crime or accident scene and will cut hours off the time police have to stay on a scene. In the past, the process would take several hours and involve hand-held surveyor equipment to map out the scene. Then, once collected, it took several more hours to turn the data into a diagram that could be used by investigators.

The new system will use digital photographs to reconstruct the scene. According to a press release, the photos and then analyzed using software that creates a 3-D image that is “millions of times more detailed than the diagrams produced with the old technology.”

It is also much quicker.

“The real benefit is to the public we serve,” Commander Chad Karlewicz said in a press release. “One of the biggest advantages of the new system is our ability to arrive on the scene, deploy our UAV and, in minutes, have the results we need.

“Before, roads would’ve been closed for hours while we did our work,” he said.

To use the new technology, RPD received authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration to use two unmanned aerial vehicles, each equipped with different photographic equipment. Eight Renton officers also received specialized training on their use from the company that makes the drones.

But the police also seem to understand the public’s concerns with the new technology and said they have worked on an internal policy to determine when and how the drones can be used.

“We are sensitive about the public’s perception that part of the new system uses UAVs,” Karlewicz said. “The policy specifically does not allow vehicles to be used for ‘random surveillance activities.’”

According to Karlewicz, the drone policy only allows for use taking photographs/video for investigative support of traffic accidents, homicides and other crime scenes, hazmat responses, search and rescue operations, barricaded persons, disaster response and tactical support.

Leibman estimated the UAV program costs about $30,000 and said it was a budgeted expense that should make up its cost over time in savings to the department through other expenses like overtime.

Reach Editor Brian Beckley at 425-336-4959.