Police, fire, and search-and-rescue teams putting drones to work when minutes matter.
Vanderbilt University Public Safety has launched a drone first-responder program for its Nashville campus, with installation and personnel training completed in April 2026 and initial operations conducted during Commencement week. The fleet is built on Skydio X10 platforms, equipped with high-resolution cameras, thermal imaging, and a parachute recovery system. According to the university, a drone
Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. I have three stories for you this week: Autel is fighting back against the FCC’s Covered List, the Michigan House passed two drone procurement bills while stalling on airspace restrictions, and a drones-for-good story where a thermal drone saved a life in freezing temperatures. Let’s get to it.…
DJI says Ontario's Chinese drone ban is a country-of-origin decision without evidence, citing seven years of audits and warning of public safety costs.
The Corman Park Police Service in Saskatchewan has deployed its DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise drone 37 times since receiving it in April 2025, and one of those deployments involved finding an intoxicated man who had crawled into a dumpster on Highway 41 in -20°C (-4°F) temperatures. The thermal camera on the aircraft picked him up.…
Russ from 51 Drones breaks down where local drone bans stop and FAA airspace authority begins, with real examples from NYC, Lakewood, and Lakeville.
The Fulshear Police Department launched a Drone as First Responder program on April 6, 2026, and the platform doing the work is the DJI Matrice 350 RTK rather than the U.S.-built Skydio X10 that has become the default for many other municipal DFR programs. The choice matters because it cuts against the broader U.S. public…
The City of Bloomington, Minnesota, will spend the next two weeks running a Drone as First Responder pilot using Skydio X10 aircraft and the Skydio Dock, the city announced on May 15. The testing period begins the week of May 18 and is intended to give city staff a working view of what DFR technology…
The Dallas City Council approved a $10.3 million FEMA grant Wednesday that expands the city’s existing Axon contract to cover counter-drone detection, tracking, and mitigation ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as reported by Kera News. The grant moves the city’s total 10-year Axon agreement from roughly $267 million to more than $277 million.…
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