Drone as First Responder

News, deep dives, and analysis — every Drone as First Responder story, newest first.

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Sep 27

Last updated

Jason Day of DRONERESPONDERS in a white cowboy hat and dark suit speaking at a podium marked Commercial UAV Expo, lit by blue stage lighting

ERIC TALLEY AWARD

DRONERESPONDERS Honors The Texas Program Behind 100,000 Sorties

Greg Whiting took the Eric Talley Public Safety UAS Excellence Award at Commercial UAV Expo, days after his Texas program logged its 100,000th sortie.

Haye KestelooSep 1

Wildfire

BRINC Ships Free Wildfire Layers In Days, On NOAA Data That Comes With Warnings

BRINC added live wildfire detections and smoke coverage to its LiveOps software at no additional cost, shipping the feature days after an engineer prototyped it. The layers run on NOAA satellite data that the agency itself labels strategic guidance rather than tactical fire intelligence.

Haye KestelooAug 10

La Vista Police Department drone, as more than 1,000 agencies gain FAA clearance for Drone as First Responder flights

DFR

FAA Cleared Over 1,000 Agencies for Drone First Responder Flights in 10 Months, and the Full List Is Now Public

A FOIA release names 1,000+ agencies the FAA cleared for drone first responder flights in 10 months, more than in the previous seven years combined.

Haye KestelooAug 7

Police

NSW PolAir Remote Drone Finds Hidden Woman In Moree

A PolAir Remote drone flown from Bankstown Airport — 300 miles away — spotted a woman leaving a shed during a welfare check in Moree, leading to her arrest for breaching a domestic violence order. Australia's first remotely piloted police drone trial keeps converting flights into arrests.

Rafael SuárezAug 6

Aerial drone view of two suspects moving property beside a white work truck in a parking lot, with the Santa Ana Police Department watermark.

Skydio

Santa Ana Police Drone Catches Truck Thieves Mid-Theft

Santa Ana PD's Eagle 1 drone found a stolen work truck minutes after patrol lost it, watched two suspects load stolen tools, and guided officers straight to them — the first felony arrests of the $682,900 DFR program a divided council approved 4-3 in February.

Rafael SuárezAug 6

Police

O'Fallon Police Flock Drone Ends Manhunt In 15 Minutes

O'Fallon, Missouri police used a Flock DFR drone to track a fleeing suspect into a storm sewer and guide officers to the exit — search, track, and arrest in under 15 minutes. The two-month-old program has already assisted in 12 felony arrests.

Rafael SuárezAug 6

DJI Dock 2 docking station with a Matrice 3DT drone on the landing pad

DJI

DJI Sells American Police A Dock Playbook The FCC Just Proposed Banning

DJI Enterprise published a Drone as First Responder scaling guide on August 4, one day after the FCC's proposal to prohibit imports and sales of foreign-made drone docking stations hit the Federal Register. The playbook's flagship American case study, El Paso, is already applying for federal money to replace its DJI fleet.

Haye KestelooAug 5

Skydio

Skydio And CentralSquare Wire DFR Into Police Dispatch

Skydio and CentralSquare announced a partnership on August 3 that builds Drone as First Responder operations natively into CentralSquare's computer-aided dispatch software, moving the drone launch button onto the screen every 911 dispatcher already watches.

Rafael SuárezAug 5

Drone as First Responder

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