Updated on: January 18, 2025 / 8:21 PM EST / CBS News
Washington — About 750 feet above the nation’s capital, a brand-new state-of-the-art D.C. Police helicopter will be in sky over Monday’s inauguration.
What will pilot Jeff Hertel be looking for?
“The different crowd parameters and crowd control,” Hertel told CBS News. “And suspicious vehicles, maybe, outside the perimeter area, larger trucks and stuff, make sure there’s people with them.”
Hertel says being in the skies gives law enforcement “the ability to see distances.”
“You can see a car running fast, you can see, like, a rooftop at night to see if there’s a burglar on top, or if he has a weapon,” he said.
Although the inauguration ceremony for President-elect Donald Trump was moved into the highly fortified and secured U.S. Capitol because of forecasts calling for extreme cold, helicopters will still be a key tool as the inaugural parade also moves indoors, to Capitol One Arena in the heart of D.C. that will host about 20,000 people.
D.C. Police will also be watching for crowds, as many of those who would have gone to the National Mall are expected to still gather across the city.
The helicopter’s on-board cameras can read a license plate from 1,000 feet up, sending back live video to the department’s real time crime center.
“It gives us the opportunity to really see what’s happening across the city, especially in large crowds,” D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith told CBS News.
Smith said that the New Orleans truck attack which killed 14 people, and the Tesla Cybertruck bombing outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas — both of which occurred on New Year’s Day — has kept law enforcement on high alert.
“Anytime there’s, I’ll say, homegrown domestic terrorism…it always makes us heighten our security efforts,” Smith said.
When asked what is keeping her up at night going into inauguration day, the police chief responded: “The fact that there could be lone wolf stuff out there, copycats that are out there.”
While official inauguration events are indoors, D.C. Police remain on high alert for violent protests outside the secured area, similar to those in 2017 where hundreds were arrested around Trump’s first inauguration. Eight years later, Smith says to expect more officers patrolling neighborhoods.
“We want people to come and protest, but we will not allow any type of violence in our city,” Smith said.
Emmy Award-winning journalist Kris Van Cleave is the senior transportation correspondent for CBS News based in Phoenix, Arizona, where he also serves as a national correspondent reporting for all CBS News broadcasts and platforms.
