Drone-as-first-responder programs, pursuit footage, evidence policy, and the departments putting UAS on patrol.
A shoplifting run at a Buena Park Kohl’s ended with two people in custody on June 9, and the deciding factor never touched the ground. When one suspect bolted on foot and folded himself into a stranger’s backyard shed, he figured the dark and the fences would hide him. A police drone overhead, reading his…
A dog got spooked on a hike at Ecola State Park, bolted, and vanished for nearly two hours. When searchers finally spotted it, the animal was stranded about 100 feet down a steep Oregon cliff, in a spot no person could safely reach on foot. The thing that found it wasn’t a search dog or…
Mystery drones are hovering over Norwich, Connecticut homes at night. Police are investigating as World Cup airspace restrictions tighten the Northeast.
A Memphis police drone tracked a suspect into a black Audi and logged the license plate before officers ever reached the scene. That arrest is the headline. The detail that caught my eye sits in the background of the footage. The department isn’t flying one drone brand. It’s flying three. A Skydio X10, a DJI…
Metro Nashville Police put three Skydio drones in the air over the Madison precinct before the Metro Council ever signed off, and now the program is catching heat for it. The department says a legal exemption let it skip approval. A council member and community organizers say that reading bends the rules. The drones are…
Cathedral City Police now cover roughly 90 percent of the city from three rooftop drone docks, and they did it on DJI hardware while half the country is being told to rip Chinese drones off the roof. The department has flown drones since 2018, but the Drone as First Responder expansion is the part that’s…
North Richland Hills police are launching a Skydio Drone as First Responder trial this month, putting eyes on accident scenes and active emergencies before the first patrol unit arrives. Two docking stations will sit at a strategic central location in the city, letting pilots launch a drone in as little as 20 seconds. The trial…
China's new "scan-and-fly" WeChat app fast-tracks drone flights in Shanghai and Sichuan, even as Beijing keeps a near-total ban squeezing DJI at home.
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