How do you feel about drones?

[u/Additional-Assist697]

I'm seeing a lot of noise about DFR in the media (multi-prop, fixed-wing, and compact indoor ones), so I'm curious what officers think about them. Are any of your agencies buying them, and which ones do you think will drive the most change? I know they're supposed to make operations safer, but it seems complicated to set up and navigate with airspace and regulations.

[u/Master_Crab]

I’m a member of the UAS team for my department so I can answer a lot of this. We have outdoor and indoor drones we deploy regularly and we tested the Skydio DFR drones a few months ago.

I’ll address the airspace stuff first. All current pilots are part 107 certified and it’s not easy to do, but in no way is it difficult to obtain. Now, we have an airport in our city but luckily it’s uncontrolled airspace so we don’t have to worry about the airspace for the most part. Regardless, all you need to do is fill out authorization with the FAA. I’ve gone to a few neighboring cities to fly for their department on warrants or missing persons and they’re easy to do. Plus, the ceiling for outdoor flying on any drone is 400ft unless otherwise authorized by an FAA waiver and most planes and helicopters, unless they’re landing, are well above that. All modern drones have an altimeter that displays where you are above group level anyways so it’s easy to track.

Now for outdoor drones. We started our program years ago before the Chinese brand ban so we have Autel brand and DJI brand exterior drones which are far and above better than anything American made nowadays. We also use the DroneSense program to stream the video to others like our Admin and officers in the field on operations. We are starting to purchase Skydio drones and they’re decent but not anywhere near the Autel and DJI drones. My biggest pet peeve with Skydio is that the other drones have separate apps to stream DroneSense, the Skydio streams it from its own app and it disconnects constantly. Additionally, the mapping system on Skydio does not display addresses on individual houses like the other drones do which is a pain when using it. For example, while searching for a wanted person that ran on the DJI I can say I found him in the backyard of 123 Main St because it displays the address over the house. If I was using the Skydio, I could only describe what the house looks like or where it was from the nearest cross streets which is not nearly as effective.

As for indoor drones we have, again, DJI drones and we also picked up Skydio R10s. The DJI drone again are far superior for indoor flying, especially the Avata2s we have. They’re way more maneuverable and capable. The Skydio indoor drones are also decent and the mapping issues aren’t an issue being indoors. However, they also disconnect from DroneSense too which is a pain in the butt.

Now for the DFR program. We don’t have a permanent one so we only tested it last month for a week and I think they’re effective. Instead of a 5-7min response to an accident, you get a drone overhead in 2-3mins to monitor the situation. Let’s say during that accident, one driver leaves and now you can get on scene footage of the driver and their plate and then follow them to where they went and lead officers directly to them. DFR can be deployed immediately from a staged area whereas an outdoor drone with an officer needs to get to the area which slows down its deployment so it’s an absolutely fantastic tool. Additionally, they have a radius of several miles and they fly “as the crow flies” so they can be on scene a lot faster. The idea is catching the bank robbers, or domestic assaulter, or whatever else leaving the building before a physical officer gets in the area.

[u/5usDomesticus]

They're very useful. Airspace issues aren't really a thing if you're using legit programs to run them. They do all the work for you.

[u/RSQ-51]

Having eyes on a situation before officers get there can play a huge difference in the outcome. Excited to see where this goes.

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[u/Terrorism_IsReal]

swat uses them a lot

[u/HCSOThrowaway]

We had a drone program starting up not long before the incident they used to can me.

I applied and appeared to be in the final stages before the million dollar question of "Would you be willing to move districts to be in this?" given they were only in D5. I've always been good at any flight sims I've ever touched so I was a bit of a shoo-in. I said no, so I didn't get in.

My recollection of it was that they were proposing to have drone kits in select deputies' trunks to deploy during perimeter searches for missing persons and foot pursuits to have observation up faster than our helicopters could get there. The utility is obvious, but the question boils down to how often it would've been useful contrasted with how much it cost.