April 15, 2021–7:63 p.m.
STAFF REPORTS
Earlier this week, the Floyd County Commission approved the purchase of a mini-caliber bomb response robot.
Floyd County Police Chief Mark Wallace said the Floyd County Bomb Squad’s current robot is large and not movable by hand.
It also has trouble getting into confined spaces and moving up stairs.
“The new robot is smaller, it’s lighter, it can be carried and put into place by two technicians, and then remotely operated,” Wallace said. “There will be two remote monitors where operators can see what the robot can see through its camera system. The system has both daylight and nighttime infrared capabilities.”
Chief Wallace added that these robots are used for more than just bombs or suspicious packages.
Police can use them to speak to suspects who have barricaded themselves.
“This robot has two-way communication where we can carry on a conversation with whoever we are trying to negotiate with,” he said. “We’ve actually had great success with our other robot using one-way communication. So, I think this new robot is going to be that much better where we can have a conversation back and forth and negotiate the person’s surrender.”
The purchase of the robot was budgeted in the 2017 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Wallace added the $67,590 price tag from Canada-based ICOR Technology was much lower than the other vendors they were looking at.