Crete awarded funding to launch new public safety program
The Village of Crete is proud to announce that it has been selected as a 2026 ComEd Powering Safe Communities grant recipient, in partnership with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus!
Grant funding will help the Village establish its first coordinated, multi-department Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) program, serving the Police Department, Fire Department, Emergency Management Agency, and Public Works Department. Through this grant, the Village has been awarded $9,855, representing a 50% cost share toward the purchase of UAS equipment.
And this new capability didn’t take long to prove its value.
On the very day the it was delivered, Crete was impacted by another round of severe weather, including a tornado. Our newly acquired UAS was put to work immediately, providing aerial situational awareness, giving our response teams another valuable tool to assess conditions and damage and sharing this information and photos with the National Weather Service.
What will this mean for Crete?
The new program will provide our public safety and municipal teams with rapid aerial information during emergencies, helping responders better understand what is happening on the ground while keeping personnel out of harm’s way.
The UAS program will support:
- Structure fires and hazardous materials incidents.
- Search and rescue operations, including thermal capabilities.
- Severe weather, disaster response and damage assessments.
- Police and public safety operations.
- Monitoring water, sewer, drainage and other critical infrastructure when breaks occur in hard to reach areas.
- Pre-planning and situational awareness for special events including our annual parades.
- Providing support to neighboring communities through mutual aid.
This capability will give incident commanders and staff another important tool for real-time situational awareness, faster decision-making and safer operations.
Most importantly, this isn’t just an investment in technology it’s an investment in the safety, resilience and future of the Crete community.
We are grateful to ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus for supporting this project and helping smaller communities like Crete bring innovative public safety technology to our residents.
Thank you for investing in Crete!
