Farmers raise funds to give Scott County sheriff advanced search drone

Editor's note: This story has been changed from its original version to correct Zack Johnston's name.

BENTON, Mo. — The fundraising campaign for an eye in the sky for Scott County wasn’t the sheriff’s idea, but he agrees it is a good one.

“There’s a couple of local farmers, one of them Marty Priggel, who said they wanted to donate money to buy a drone,” Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said.

Priggel, who lives and farms in the Oran, Missouri, area, said the idea of

donating a drone to the sheriff’s department came up over a year ago as a way to help the deputy assigned to rural crimes in the county, such as the theft of copper wire from farm equipment.

“It wasn’t a big deal to get a group of farmers to kick money in the pot and raise some money for that,” Priggel said. “They caught several of those guys over the past few months, so they are definitely doing a good job with what they are doing, cracking down. So I called some people up and asked them if they would do $100 a piece — it didn’t take too long to raise it.”

But when a 23-year-old duck hunter died in an accident, they realized with additional equipment, a drone not only could help protect farm equipment but might save a life.

“The deal with Zack Johnston really brought it home for a lot of us,” Priggel said. “He used to come and stay with my kids when he was small. You can’t help but hurt for the parents.”

By that time, they had raised about $3,000 but also learned about a tool that could be mounted on the drone that would make it much more expensive but more effective in searches: a forward-looking infrared camera, or FLIR camera.

“It is unbelievable what it can pick up,” Priggel said.

Using a FLIR image, a viewer can identify different animals and humans “just by the heat signature it puts up,” he said.

Also, Priggel said, “they are very handy for fire departments, because after they fight a fire, they can fly over and determine if they left a hot spot in the house.”

Priggel said their research into drones equipped with a FLIR camera put the goal at $10,000.

“But I’d like to raise more than that,” he said. He explained the search for Johnston made it clear there was other equipment the county needed to have available.

For example, during the search to recover the hunter, searchers had to borrow cold-weather wet suits, he said.

“Those are $500 to $1,000 apiece,” Priggel said.

Rural volunteer fire departments don’t have room in their budgets for equipment that might be used once every couple of years.

Priggel plans to meet with first-responder agency leaders in the county and come up with a list of items that can help them in life-saving operations but are too costly for each department to buy and keep around.

That specialized gear could be kept at a central location in the county for any of the agencies in the county to use when needed, he said.

Walter said a FLIR-equipped done would be something his department would use.

“There’s several times we could have used a drone, and a lot of those times it is searching for someone,” he said. “There are places in the county that are rugged and rough and not accessible by vehicles.”

A drone was the right tool for the Johnston search, Walter said.

“There were places the helicopter could fly over but couldn’t get down in the bushes and trees to see that well,” he said. “You’re pretty limited on what you can see from that far up, and when you get lower, the wind wash from the helicopter blades will make it difficult to see. With the drone, you can get in pretty close to the ground. Those areas are a lot more accessible with that drone.”

Those who would like to make a donation for the FLIR-equipped drone or other life-saving gear can “drop if off or mail it to the sheriff’s department — put a memo on the check that it’s for the drone or a little note letting them that’s what it for,” Priggel said.