Tennessee police department to acquire 12 DFR drones
The drones will be acquired as part of a larger $9.4 million equipment contract
Knoxville Police Department (KPD), in the US state of Tennessee, has announced plans to acquire 12 drones for emergency calls.
The aircraft will form the basis of KPD’s drone-as-first-responder program (DFR), and will respond to incidents automatically when an emergency call is received, according to a report by the local Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper.
The drones are part of a larger $9.4 million police equipment contract, and are not expected to begin operation until at least six months from now.
The autonomous DFR drones will join Knoxville’s existing fleet of remotely piloted drones, and will allow KPD to expand its operations beyond what its 14 drone pilots can currently provide.
Baton Rouge Police Department in the state of Louisiana recently unveiled a new long-range drone – a Stalker VXE30.
Oliver Cuenca
Oliver Cuenca was a Junior Editor at the Voyageur Group. He was previously a News and Features Journalist for the rail magazine IRJ until 2021, and studied MA Magazine Journalism at Cardiff University. His favourite helicopter is the AW169 – the workhorse of the UK air ambulance sector! He also led the creation of Waypoint: The AirMed&Rescue podcast, serving as its Production Editor and co-host.