The Dallas Police Department’s new Drone as First Responder program officially launched today with eight remotely piloted drones based at Dallas Fire-Rescue stations across the City of Dallas. These drones are operated out of the Fusion/Real Time Crime Center and are designed to respond to calls for service in a two-mile radius from their base station. The base locations were selected based on heat maps of calls for service for both police and fire, placing them where they can potentially respond to the greatest number of calls. The pilots will be able to get to the scene quicker than in a squad car and begin to provide real-time intelligence and feedback to officers, as well as reduce the level of response or clear a call entirely if the incident has resolved. If a pilot sees a call in a drone’s response area where aerial intelligence can enhance officer safety, they can deploy a drone to provide critical updates to officers at the scene. Each drone is equipped with a thermal camera to help during nighttime operations, as well as a loudspeaker to make announcements to individuals on the ground.
“I challenged our team to find innovative ways to continue improving our response times, and this new drone unit will not only keep officers free to respond to more calls, but provide real time updates as they are responding to calls,” said Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux. “Even during our training, our pilots were able to clear three holding calls in an hour with one drone. That alone proved their value to us, and I’m looking forward to seeing the benefits in both officer safety and response times.”
Our public safety partners at Dallas Fire-Rescue will also be utilizing the Drone as First Responder program, with training for pilots underway. Under the new program, in the event of a reported structure fire, a drone will be dispatched to the scene ahead of arriving apparatus. This real-time aerial perspective will allow incident command to assess the size, scope, and intensity of a fire before firefighters even step off the apparatus.
“Dallas Fire-Rescue is proud to collaborate with DPD on any initiative that will make our city safer,” said Justin Ball, Chief of Dallas Fire-Rescue. “By strategically docking the drones at our fire stations in high-demand areas, we are optimizing our response times and ensuring our tactics are more precise, while adding an extra layer of protection for the city.”
This collaborative partnership between police and fire departments represents a major step forward in using smart-city technology to protect both residents and first responders. Click here for video of the drone units being installed: https://youtu.be/nl7A0KX2T6o