Louisiana now has one of the nation's largest police drone fleets

The big picture: Sheriff Joseph Lopinto says the parish has been using "drones as first responders" since November.

• They have been particularly helpful with tracking suspected shoplifters, he says, and have assisted in more than 60 arrests on a variety of charges.
• "This is a game changer for us," Lopinto said at a press conference last week.
• JPSO leadership envisions the drones helping with car chases, armed robberies, vehicle fires, burglaries, suspicious people and other critical calls.

How it works: About 20 drones are docked around the parish, where trained JPSO pilots at the Harvey operations center can launch them within seconds of a 911 call for help.

• Almost every mile of Jefferson Parish is covered by the drones, except for Kenner, Lafitte and Grand Isle, Lopinto says.
• They average about 40 launches per day, which is only a fraction of the approximately 800 emergency calls JPSO gets, he says.
• The drones often arrive before deputies. The operators communicate with deputies while tracking vehicles and people. See sample drone footage.

Zoom in: The drones fly at 200 feet and have spotlights, regular and thermal cameras, speakers, strobe lights and parachutes.

• They also have red and blue lights on top, but those didn't seem very visible during a daytime test flight for reporters. The gray drones don't have other markings on them.
• The sound from the propellers was nearly undetectable during the same test flight.
• Lopinto suspects most residents "won't even know it's there." Las Vegas and New York City have similar programs, he says.

Friction point: JPSO says it is not using facial recognition software with its drones, which has been a sticking point with the surveillance camera network in New Orleans.

• The New Orleans Police Department paused its alerts from nonprofit Project NOLA this year amid a Washington Post investigation about the legality of the AI-driven program operated by citizens.
• The JPSO program doesn't use license plate readers either, Lopinto says. The video quality also isn't good enough to identify specific people, he added.
• The video is recorded, similar to body-worn camera footage, and stored for court use, he says.

By the numbers: The equipment costs about $1.5 million annually, plus personnel costs to operate, Lopinto says.

• In comparison, it costs about $1,500 an hour to operate one of JPSO's two helicopters, he says.

What's next: JPSO expects to add four more drones in the coming weeks as construction wraps up on the drone docks.