2026 Aerial Achievement Awards Winners

Winston-Salem Police Department earned its community's trust before it needed it. Sgt. Benjamin Croke brought the Air Support Unit into schools, churches and civic groups to explain what the aircraft do and why. He developed more than 40 pilots and paired the fleet with North Carolina's first operational counter drone system.

Pacific Gas and Electric volunteers gave up their holidays to inspect 374 miles of San Francisco. A substation fire in December 2025 helped knock out power to more than 130,000 customers. Employees from the aerial inspection and aviation teams stepped forward to form a rapid response infrared crew and flagged 127 conditions needing urgent repair.

Vancouver Police Department stood up Canada's first dock based DFR program in under sixty days. Getting there meant clearing Transport Canada rules, privacy governance, procurement and command planning at once. The aircraft now cover all five policing districts and reach Downtown Eastside calls ahead of officers, streaming live to command.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office flew nearly 11,000 missions in its first eight months. The program averages more than fifty launches a day and arrives ahead of deputies close to ninety percent of the time. In that window it contributed to over 450 apprehensions and the recovery of more than 75 stolen vehicles and 50 firearms.

Dearborn Police Department launched Michigan's first DFR program and reached the national top ten. Six months in, the department flies over 800 missions a month from its Real Time Information Center. Aircraft beat patrol to about seventy percent of calls, arrive inside two minutes ninety percent of the time, and settle 28 percent without a car.

The University of Tennessee Police Department built a campus drone program from nothing in two years. The chief asked in 2024 whether it was possible. By May 2026, with thousands packed at one stadium gate and heat cases already occurring, an X10 was overhead in 90 seconds and showed leadership enough to open the gates early and clear the crush.

Southern Company put the industry's first autonomous drone program inside a nuclear protected area. Dry cask inspections once took three hours, multiple personnel and heavy site coordination. They now run as a twenty minute automated flight launched from over 200 miles away, saving about 1,380 labor hours a year and cutting radiation exposure.

Capturing imagery is only half the job. Dominion invested in AI workflows that carry video and photos through to analysis and work order notification, paired with a roadmap that standardized design and construction methods across the system.

Omaha Police Department flew over 7,000 drone missions in nine months without a single incident. The Air Support Unit already ran a mature safety management system for its helicopters, so it folded the aircraft into that framework instead of writing a new one. With 800 manned hours on top, the unit delivered over 2,000 hours of air support.

Redwood City Police Department became the first in San Mateo County to stop a home invasion with a drone. Live since June 2025, the program has passed 3,000 flights. In week one it helped recover three firearms traditional methods would likely have missed, and footage from an officer involved shooting later documented events and cleared the officers.

Kansas City Fire Department controlled the airspace over a World Cup host city for a month. Thirty three pilots flew 1,250 missions and 299 hours across the tournament. The department served at once as airspace control authority, event overwatch, citywide emergency response, and the embedded counter drone asset for FBI and CBP partners.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation captured the State House in three dimensions. The dome, ornate detailing and complex rooflines sit in a dense part of the city, which normally means access equipment, multiple methods and repeat visits. Coordinated X10 aircraft produced a single model now used for preservation and capital planning.

American Electric Power checked burned lines at night without sending a lineman into the ash. A WWII era cotton gin burned in Gregory, Texas, taking poles down with it. The bales could not be put out without spreading embers. With the color camera showing nothing through the smoke, crews switched to thermal and cleared the re energized circuit.

The California Department of Transportation now watches unstable slopes without sending a crew. SOAR grew from a federal proof of concept into a statewide network of X10 docks and a mobile command trailer. Over 2,500 flights have run without a system failure, and landslide monitoring has documented more than $1.1 million in savings this year.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department solved its staffing problem by hiring civilian pilots. A department cannot scale aerial response by pulling officers off the street. Trained civilians now fly beside commissioned officers under identical standards. One may never make an arrest, but may be first to see an armed suspect behind a wall.

The Town of Ramapo Police Department proved a small agency can run DFR on two docks. With 110 sworn officers, the department skipped the metropolitan hive model. Its RAPTOR unit flies visible patrols over shopping centers to deter crime rather than only respond, and five of nine remote pilots are certified instructors, including the chief.

Caldwell Police Department found two missing brothers, ages two and three, in ten minutes. The boys had been gone from their apartment complex for over an hour. An X10 was overhead before the first patrol car arrived, clearing canals and brush no one could see from street level. Both were safe and reunited with their families.

Southern California Edison stopped a wildfire it found behind a locked gate. A troubleman could not reach a circuit relay he was sent to assess. Certified for beyond visual line of sight, Nate Baker flew the line instead. Two miles in, he spotted an unreported ignition, and crews had it out within minutes.