LAPD Uses UAV for First Time in Koreatown Standoff

Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department deployed an unmanned aerial vehicle for the first time during a standoff between SWAT and a robbery suspect in Koreatown late last week.

According to the Los Angeles Daily News , the UAV was used to give officers a view inside a second-story apartment where police believed the suspect was hiding.

The man had been barricaded in the apartment for several hours before SWAT requested the use of the drone.

The drone allowed SWAT officers to "safely approach the location knowing the suspect was not lying in wait," said Deputy Chief Horace Frank, who commands the department’s counter-terrorism, bomb squad, and other special units.

LAPD has a total of three drones in its inventory.