The Los Angeles Police Department announced on Tuesday that it had deployed a drone for the first time during a barricade situation last week, under a one-year pilot program authorized by the Police Commission last year.

The drone was used on January 9 in the 300 block of Berendo Street in Koreatown, where a robbery suspect was hiding in the attic of an apartment. Police arrived at around 4 am and there began a nine-hour standoff.

Seven hours into the standoff, a drone team within the Special Weapons and Tactics platoon received approval by Deputy Chief Horace Frank to use the drone to find out whether the suspect was hiding behind the second floor door.

After determining it was safe to enter, the SWAT team then breached the front door of the residence. Police found the man hiding in an attic and took him into custody without harming him, Moore said.

LAPD released drone footage from the incident.

“The situation of an elevated location, a staircase, of an approach [puts them] in significant peril should the suspect be hiding behind a door inside that residence out of their view,” said LAPD Chief Michel Moore.

The suspect had been wanted for a convenience store robbery in December in the 4900 block of Santa Monica Boulevard in East Hollywood near Los Angeles Community College.

The one-year pilot program went into effect on July 16. After the completion of the one year period, the commission will review and tweak the program, said Steve Soboroff, L.A. Police Commission president.

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