Police, fire, and search-and-rescue teams putting drones to work when minutes matter.
A post claiming to show an AI-controlled drone armed with a CO2 BB gun that autonomously shoots squirrels has pulled in more than 590,000 views on X this week, and almost every law it touches points the same direction: this is illegal for any civilian to operate in the United States. The account, a self-described…
St. Louis is getting six police drones, and how the city approved them says as much as the program itself. On Wednesday its Board of Police Commissioners signed off on a Drone as First Responder program built on BRINC hardware, racing a funding deadline that had Mayor Cara Spencer calling the process rushed. The drones…
The Wyoming Police Department is going from one drone to three. The Wyoming City Council approved $26,226 for two new aircraft on May 18 in a 5-1 vote, with one council member dissenting on surveillance grounds. The department flew its existing drone 131 times in 2025, and command staff say the additional units will close…
The New York City Police Department now has trained officers and certified equipment to electronically disable hostile drones in city airspace, a capability reserved until December for a small group of federal agencies. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed the department spent $6.5 million on drone mitigation gear at a May 21 press conference at One…
The Metro Nashville Police Department started flying drones over the Madison precinct on Tuesday, May 26, the first day of a Drone as First Responder trial that will run up to 45 flight days. Three Skydio aircraft are involved, on loan from the manufacturer at no cost to the city. Four FAA-certified officers operate the…
The Dallas Police Department’s new Drone as First Responder program made its first save on Thursday afternoon, one day after the program went live. A man was walking into rush-hour traffic on Interstate 45, a Skydio drone reached him before any patrol unit could, and a uniformed crew walked him off the freeway alive. The…
The Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection (DFFP) used its Unmanned Aerial Systems Module to identify hot spots and spot fires across the Gerstle River during the Sawmill Creek Fire, helping ground crews achieve 100 percent containment four days after ignition. The fire was held to 14.8 acres on state land east of Delta…
A Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) drone operator located a suspect with outstanding warrants for violent offences in under 20 minutes on May 9, 2026, after the man fled a disturbance call in Pickering, Ontario and hid in a green space. The operation marks one of the first publicly documented arrests powered by DRPS’s three-month-old…
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