Lewisburg, Ohio (pop. 2,000) - Chief Randy Creech of the Lewisburg Police Department in west central Ohio was asked by Bullard to spend a month evaluating the use of thermal imaging in patrol work within this small community.
Throughout the month of January, night patrol officers used the TacSight S1 in routine patrol work, in tasks including monitoring tank temperatures in an anhydrous ammonia storage lot, watching for activity in the local cemetery and checking for vandals in the village park. While officers in the department have had several years of experience with light intensification equipment, this was their first introduction to the use of infrared technology in their work.
“With light intensification technology, you have to distinguish objects,” Chief Creech pointed out. “For example, we can park in one driveway and see the whole cemetery from one vantage point. With night vision, we’d have to distinguish objects… there’s a gravestone, there’s a gravestone, there’s a tree… With a thermal imager, as long as it isn’t warm, it doesn’t matter what it is. You don’t have to visually identify things. We had a guy walk through the cemetery, and on the screen of the thermal imager, it was like he had a neon light on him.”
Chief Creech, who also serves as a volunteer firefighter with the Lewisburg Fire Department, is familiar with the Bullard T3. “We’ve had the unit for about five years in the fire department, and we’ve found that nothing seems to hurt it. That makes the TacSight appealing as well, since we know it’s so durable. I told the guys to throw it on the seats in their cars.”
Chief Creech says it is his plan to purchase a TacSight for the department, either with grant funding or through the department budget. “Four full time and six part time night patrol officers used them, and all the guys said they absolutely want to have access to the TacSight on an ongoing basis,” he said.