O’Hara police Officer Maria Sciacca had a bird’s-eye view over the land where former President Donald Trump was shot and former Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company Chief Corey Comperatore was killed.
Two others also were wounded in the July 13 assassination attempt of the Republican presidential nominee July 13 at the Butler Farm Show complex in Butler Township.
U.S. Secret Service killed the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, shortly after he opened fire.
Sciacca, who also serves as a drone operator with the North Hills Special Response Team, was dispatched that evening as part of the large law enforcement response to the crime scene.
She used the township’s aerial devices to provide a live feed of the fairgrounds.
“That was probably the largest-scale thing I’ve been a part of that involved so many jurisdictions,” Sciacca said. “You had multiple SWAT, special response teams there. You had the state police. You had the Secret Services. The FBI showed up at one point. We don’t often get a chance to be in a situation that involves that broad of a category of federal, state, local law enforcement. From every different deployment we go on, we learn new things.”
Live feeds are a big part of drone usage.
“We follow pretty strict guidelines just for privacy reasons in terms of what we actually photograph or take video of,” Sciacca said. “When we do take video or photo, it’s always of a situation where there’s going to be some sort of officer bodycam to back it up. We’re not just recording private people’s private lives. We’re not in the business of doing that.
“It’s all maintained by our evidence procedures. It’s just one more way we can reassure people we’re not here to infringe on your privacy. We’re here to make our jobs safer. We want to make our response times quicker. We want to be able to provide a better service to the community. … We’re very careful in order to not be using it for things we shouldn’t be using it for.”
Sciacca has used drones in suspect and missing person searches as well as engineering efforts the past few years.
An interest in photography led to the career specialization.
“I started as a hobbyist,” Sciacca said. “I had an interest in the photography aspect of drones, and I’ve owned drones for years personally. When I first started working in Millvale, they had won a drone from a conference. … That was very early on law enforcement getting involved in the drone side of things.”
The Shaler resident became an O’Hara officer in 2018. She served in Millvale for a year before coming to O’Hara.
Sciacca worked with township officials to start a drone program, but things were delayed for a while because of the pandemic.
Then in June 2022, O’Hara acquired a model M30T drone from DJI Enterprise. Weighing around 8 pounds, it can travel about 15 miles from its operator.
The machine is weather resistant and can be flown in all kinds of conditions day or night. It has a thermal imaging camera that can help officers find suspects or missing people.
It has been used at least 50 times since it was acquired and more than 100 times including during training exercises.
“Most of what we use it for is search and rescue,” Sciacca said. “We have used it a lot for missing endangered persons. We have a lot of wooded area in O’Hara. We’ve used it a bunch for stuff like that. Found a few missing children with it. Next closest thing we use it for is a tactical advantage when we deal with barricaded subjects. … I can put this up on any given day.”
Sciacca recalled responding to a call Aug. 10 for a barricaded man inside a West Deer residence.
She said officers were dispatched for a domestic situation with possible firearms involved. The incident ended peacefully after a drone was flown inside to locate the man, who was found asleep in a bedroom.
“Not only did we confirm the person was still in the residence, but then we knew where they were,” she said. “We’re able to use it and we like to see a peaceful resolution to things, not something that has to be escalated. This is one more tool that helps avoid that.”
Program boost and other usages
The township invested in its drone operations in May when it bought an Avata 2 drone from DJI Enterprise and purchased a Brytee portable monitor and charging station. The purchases totaled about $4,200.
The monitor allows other officers or officials to see what Sciacca sees on the older drone’s controller. The station also recharges the aircraft, which can fly for about a half-hour on full battery life.
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The Avata 2 is a much smaller and lighter drone. It primarily is used indoors with a controller and headset similar to a VR gaming system covering the operator’s eyes to see what the drone camera sees.
Footage also can be viewed on a cellphone through a special connection.
Outside of police work, Sciacca’s piloting skills are used for engineering purposes. She used the smaller drone to help televise township sewer lines and the larger drone to take photos of a breakwall in the Allegheny River and the river’s shoreline.
“It’s a great tool,” township engineer Charles Steinert said. “It gives us a greater ability to be able to inspect and monitor issues.”
Police Superintendent Jay Davis said Sciacca and the drones have proved invaluable.
“The success of the program can be credited to Officer Sciacca’s commitment to the community at large and her dedication to provide assistance to all of our partners in law enforcement — whether it is being called out to assist with an at-risk missing person, North Hills SRT or other critical incidents in our area,” Davis said. “The time she has invested in training and the time she continues to invest in being called away from her personal life speaks volumes of her commitment to our drone program.”
“In many cases, our drone program provides assistance for our law enforcement partners in locating at-risk persons and preserving life, which is at the core of first responder ethics,” Davis added. “Also, I find the drone program gives us opportunities in many cases to put a drone in harm’s way rather than placing officers in a dangerous situation. The drone also gives officers more real-time reliable information, allowing our officers to make informed decisions.”