Washington County Sheriff's Office goes robotic

WASHINGTON CO. (WITI) -- Two years after the Washington County Sheriff's Office brought a robot onto their team, they are finally able to use it in the field.

Washington County Sheriff Dale Schmidt knew what he was looking for back in 2011, when he started looking for a robotic addition to his team.

"I could count back in history at least 15 times we could have used this, but what we did use is a lot of manpower which cost a lot of money,” said Washington County Sheriff Dale Schmidt. “It's just a need I perceived over time and it seems to be working out now."

The official name for the new robot is a mini caliber. It has four cameras on it, and also has the capabilities to open doors and goes up and down stairs. But Sheriff Schmidt said it's not important what the robot looks like; what's important is what it sees. Deputies can see what the robot sees on a screen located on the remote that controls it.

“It's giving you more information to make a more informed decision about what force you are going to need to resolve something,” said Sheriff Schmidt.

Sheriff Schmidt and his team, four of whom are trained to operate the robot, finally got to see it in action this summer.

“We utilized it last week for a similar situation where the person was potentially armed, potentially suicidal, would not talk to us, wouldn't communicate with us, so they used the robot to go in and actually found that the person was asleep,” said the sheriff.

Even though that most recent situation ended without violence, Sheriff Schmidt says that won't always be the case, and having the capability to see inside of an unknown situation, without putting a deputy in harm’s way will be worth the cost. The robot cost the county $20,000. Even though it's only been used in the field so far a total of two times, both this year, Schmidt says he knows he made the right choice.