Dallas, Texas, launches drone-as-first-responder program

Dallas Police Department (DPD), in the US state of Texas, has announced the official launch of a new drone-as-first-responder (DFR) program, implemented in partnership with Dallas Fire-Rescue.

The program encompasses eight remotely piloted drones based at Dallas Fire-Rescue stations across the city, and will be used to respond to both law enforcement and firefighting incidents within a two-mile radius of their base station.

The drones will provide a first-response capability, gathering real-time intelligence about the scope and severity of occurrences before human responders arrive on 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.

The base locations were selected using heat maps of where calls occurred for both services, to ensure that the drones would be able to respond to the greatest number of incidents.

“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 Daniel Comeaux, Police Chief of DPD. “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.”

Justin Ball, Chief of Dallas Fire-Rescue, added: “Dallas Fire-Rescue is proud to collaborate with DPD on any initiative that will make our city safer. 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.”

Everdrone recently launched DFR operations in the city of Borås, in Sweden’s Västra Götaland Region.