First Responders

Police, fire, and search-and-rescue teams putting drones to work when minutes matter.

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Sep 11

Last updated

A heavy-lift cargo drone hangs in a gray sky above Devighat, Nepal, with a bundle of relief supplies suspended on a long line beneath it

Disaster Response

Nepal Asks Abroad For Cargo Drones As China Flies 47 Next Door

Nepal ran its first 220-pound cargo drone test four days after the flood and asked other countries for heavy-lift drones. China had 47 flying by Thursday.

Haye KestelooAug 30

Orange remote-controlled rescue USV powering through breaking surf under an overcast sky.

Search & Rescue

Jersey Shore Firefighters Buy $10,000 Rescue Robot as Lifeguards Leave

Harvey Cedars volunteers are training on the Dolphin 3, a remote-controlled rescue craft that runs 15 mph, before the island drops to two guarded beaches.

Haye KestelooAug 28

Quadcopter delivery drone with a red-and-yellow chevron-marked cargo box flying against an overcast sky

WHOLE BLOOD

Hillsborough County Hasn't Voted on Its Blood Drone Program Yet

Hillsborough County commissioners decide September 2 whether the nation's first EMS whole blood drone program flies in October. The wire coverage already calls it launched.

Haye KestelooAug 18

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

White fixed-wing AVSS drone banking above a turquoise glacial lake in a snow-capped mountain valley

Police

ThinkOn And AVSS Put Canadian Drone Data On Canadian Soil, Off The Hyperscalers

ThinkOn and AVSS are hosting TAK on Canadian sovereign cloud, with live drone video piped in. The data residency case is real. The 'until now' is not.

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

Overhead black-and-white view of a DJI Phantom quadcopter surrounded by folding DJI Mavic drones and other multirotors arranged on a white surface

Police

Newberg Police Fly Drones Where K-9s Used To Go

Newberg-Dundee police and Yamhill County deputies have flown drones since 2022 — a 10-aircraft combined DJI fleet that clears buildings ahead of officers and ends foot pursuits with thermal at 400 feet. No ribbon cuttings, no controversy, just standard equipment.

Rafael SuárezAug 6

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

First Responders

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