Drones Used To Fight Retail Crime In Bensalem

BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA —When the Bensalem Township Police Department decided to crack down on a 35 percent rise in retail crimes over the past two years, police pulled out all the stops.

Police held a summit with business owners to educate them. Police partnered with the Bensalem Township Economic Development Corporation and business owners to launch Bensalem Secure.

They bolstered patrols and put out a weekly list of retail suspects. And they took to the skies.

The police department is using drones to crack down on retail thefts,

Detective Sgt. Glenn Vandegrift said a small fleet of drones is launched quickly after a local retail theft is reported.

He said the droves arrive consistently within two minutes as the operator pans the camera to find someone matching the description of the suspect.

In one case, information about the theft of a bicycle, along with the suspect's location, was passed along to the responding officer who made the arrest less than a mile away from the shop that was targeted, Vandegrift said.

"Our clearance rate for retail thefts is 62 percent. That is significantly higher than the national average," he added.

In Bensalem Township —which is a stone's throw from Philadelphia —retail thefts skyrocketed, going from 484 thefts in 2019 to nearly 900 next year.

Vandegrift said the police department has zero tolerance toward cracking down on retail crime, whether it's $30, $300, or $3,000.