EVANGELINE PARISH, La. (KLYF) -- Here in Evangeline Parish the donation of a new drone is helping the sheriff's office evolve and make fighting crime more efficient.

The sheriff's office was gifted the drone by Kendall Morgan Pipeline with the hopes to make missions and search parties easier for the deputies involved. Evangeline Parish Sheriff Charles Guillory said the new drone will be much help to the department.

"It's going to be a great asset to our department, officers are being trained right now so it's going to be a big plus for this parish," said Guillory.

The way to do that is by utilizing key features in the drone such as its thermal camera and its mapping features to cover more ground even faster. Ben Gorey with SciTech university explained why the drone could be a useful tool for the department.

"Using thermals to be able to do search and rescues, find missing people in hard-to-reach places," Gorey explained. "You've got mapping features on the drone which lets you be able to cover massive amounts of territory, from 200 to 300 acres in anywhere from 17 to 25 minutes."

Utilizing the drone doesn't stop with just search and rescue missions.

Thanks to training like the one taking place today, Guillory says this technology will help his office continue to combat the two most prominent crimes in the parish.

"We have 4-wheeler thefts, it will be good for looking at if they hid it in a field or a wooded area. Even to illegal drug trafficking in the parish. That's a big thing for us and I just can't wait to get started using it," said Guillory.

As deputies continue to train with the drone, Guillory says he looks forward to flying it on its first mission in the near future.

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