LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Nevada Highway Patrol is unveiling a program to use flying drones as an eye in the sky over crash scenes.

State Department of Public Safety officials plan to show off one of the program's three unmanned aerial vehicles to the media on Friday at a county park in northwest Las Vegas.

Trooper Jason Buratczuk says the agency is the first in the state to begin an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle program.

He says the three NHP drones will be based in Las Vegas, Reno and Elko.

Buratczuk says the program should save money by giving crash investigators an aerial view to map and photograph a scene without having to summon an expensive-to-operate police helicopter.