The Virginia Association of Counties has awarded the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) program with a 2018 Achievement Award as a model local government program.
 
The LCSO was the first agency in Virginia, and just the sixth in the U.S., to have a small UAS equipped with a Project Lifesaver antenna. The Project Lifesaver program is an electronic-based locating system for people with medical conditions—such as Alzheimer’s disease and autism—who have a tendency to wander from home and get lost.

Project Lifesaver clients have a wristband transmitter that emits an automatic locating signal. If the client becomes lost, the specially trained deputies with the LCSO Search and Rescue Team use the UAS equipped with the Project Lifesaver payload to help find the client.

The LCSO UAS is also capable of carrying a payload of infrared and high-resolution cameras to help during search and rescue operations.

Last December, the LCSO Search and Rescue Team received national attention after its UAS helped find a missing 92-year-old hunter in a heavily wooded area in Shenandoah County. Using the UAS and thermal imagers to search the area, team members were able to find the missing hunter safe just 20 minutes after the UAS was deployed.