The sheriff’s office acquired the robot from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency for free except for the cost of repairs, which amounted to about $30,000, Captain Dan Funk told commissioners Thursday.
The robot is worth $535,000 and has never been used.
“This is a piece of equipment that we would have never had, but for the program we got it from,” Funk said. “You’ll see a lot of the agencies around here won’t have anything like this. They may have something smaller, but of this magnitude... it has a lot of opportunities for us.”
The robot has a lift capacity of about 330 pounds, thermal night vision, and is piloted with a touchscreen tablet and an Xbox controller.
The Greene County Sheriff’s Office plans to use it for SWAT operations, confronting armed and dangerous individuals, scene perimeter surveillance in high risk situations, explosives detection and disposal, Hazmat or contaminated areas, or even rescuing downed or injured personnel when another officer cannot reach them.
“It’s an asset we can share with the rest of the county, and the region,” Sheriff Scott Anger said.
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