Honolulu Fire Department uses drones to enforce stay-at-home order at beaches

The Honolulu Fire Department uses drones to enforce stay-at-home and work-at-home order from Mayor Kirk Caldwell at local beaches around Oahu, city officials said on Friday.

Three drone teams will be stationed at Lanikai, Waikiki and Sandy Beach from 10 AM to 2 PM, according to the Honolulu Fire Department.

Honolulu Fire Department uses drones to enforce stay-at-home order

The drones that are used are the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise aircraft, that can be outfitted with a loudspeaker to make public announcements. The unmanned aircraft will play the following audio message out loud:

“Aloha, a stay-at-home order is in effect. Please do not gather or sit on the beach. Water activities are permitted but please leave immediately after.”

City officials have said that the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise drones will not be outfitted with any video recording equipment and will only be used to make public announcements.

This is an interesting statement as the DJ Mavic 2 Enterprise drones come out of the box with a working gimbal and camera with zoom lens. It makes you wonder what exactly the city official mean with their statement or if they fully understand the equipments that the Honolulu Fire Department will use.

The announcement to start using drones to relay audio messages to the public came shortly after the statement by Mayor Kirk Caldwell and Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard that the HPD would step up enforcement of the stay-at-home order to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, according to the Star Advertiser.

The Honolulu Fire Department will start using the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise drones as of today and will continue to do so throughout the three-day Easter weekend.

DroneXL's take

Over the last weeks, we have seen an dramatic increase in the use of drones around the world to help stop the Coronavirus from spreading. The DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise with the loudspeaker to play audio messages to the public has been the most common use of drones. Other use case have included using drones to measure the body temperature of people and the use of agricultural drones to spray disinfectants in public areas. DJI recently launched their Distaster Relief Program in the U.S. and provided 100 drones to government agencies, First Responders and local law enforcement to help fight COVID-19.