5 Steps to implementing patrol-led DFR deployment
Learn how to set up a patrol-led Drone as First Responder (DFR) deployment program for your agency.
During this engaging discussion, we share the five critical steps required to seamlessly integrate drone technology into your agency's operational strategies. Gain valuable insights from experienced law enforcement experts who have successfully implemented patrol-led DFR programs.
Hear about
- Effective preparation: Discover how to prepare your agency for the implementation of Patrol-Led Deployment, ensuring a smooth transition and optimal outcomes.
- Building advocacy and community buy-in: Learn proven strategies to garner support from stakeholders and community members, fostering a positive perception of drone technology within your agency.
- Navigating regulatory challenges: Explore important tactics to overcome regulatory hurdles, enabling you to launch your patrol-led deployment program successfully and within legal boundaries.
Learn more about Skydio Drone as First Responder – DFR.
- Hello, and welcome to today's live talk, Five Steps to
- Implementing Patrol Led Deployment.
- My name is Noreen Charlton, and I am new to Skydio as the senior
- manager
- for public safety marketing. I've spent the last several
- years in the reality capture space as it pertains to
- public safety applications and scene reconstruction, and before
- that, I spent just over a decade with the Las
- Vegas Metropolitan
- Police Department as a crime scene analyst.
- I am incredibly excited to be joined today by some of
- Skydio's industry experts, Fritz and Deepu.
- Guys, if you can please take a moment to
- introduce yourself to our webinar
- guests.
- Sure. I'll start since my picture's first. And welcome to the team, Noreen.
- Thank you.
- Our first webinar together. Um, and it's kind of cool to have two
- people that everybody knows by their first names, I guess.
- [laughs] But my name's Fritz Reber, um, head of public safety
- integration at Skydio, uh, coming up on four years, believe it
- or not.
- Um,
- just, you know, obviously spending, uh, every day, uh, talking to public safety
- agencies, learning how they use drones, and, and making sure that bridge of
- communication between Skydio and the customer stays open.
- Uh, before that I was a, a, uh, police officer with the Chula Vista Police
- Department. I spent 27 years there.
- I retired as the, uh, patrol operations captain, uh,
- number two position
- behind, uh, the chief there, Roxana DaCanh, whom many people know.
- Um, worked closely, uh, was the UAS commander there.
- Um, took over from Vern, who actually started up the team,
- Vern Sallee,
- who's over at Axon, a good partner with us.
- Um, and when I got a hold of the team, I, uh, got sidetracked with Drones First
- Responder, so spearheaded that with, uh, Cabe Termes, who, uh,
- who's now at Skydio, so the two of us are working together again.
- Um, spent a year in retirement, uh, standing up, uh,
- and working with Chula Vista
- to develop Drones First Responder, writing the waivers, um, helping
- with training, getting launch sites, et cetera.
- So, uh, really,
- uh, understood the value of, uh, you know, thinking about how to de-
- deploy drones differently, which we'll talk about today.
- Um, and, uh, so after about a year of doing that,
- came over
- to Skydio, and, and happy to be working with, uh,
- people like Deepu, who's
- done some good stuff, and you too, Noreen.
- Oh.
- Still muting myself.
- How you doing, everybody? My name's Deepu John.
- I'm a solutions engineer with Skydio. Um, I've been with the company...
- Actually, today's my second year anniversary with
- Skydio.
- I've been here for two years, uh, as a solutions engineer, so I work on the
- pre-sales side, uh, doing technical validations, proof of
- concepts, uh, with our customers.
- Um, prior to that, I, uh, served 20 years in the New York City
- Police Department.
- Um, I was assigned, uh, for 17 years...
- Actually, no, uh, 13 years of which I was assigned to the Technical Assistance
- Response Unit, uh, the TARU unit, um, where I was a detective.
- Um, the, that unit, um, is, uh, it's interesting because it's,
- it's kind of
- like an incubator for new technologies, uh, within NYPD.
- Um, uh, so we get a chance to research and develop new technologies and kind of
- implement it and send it out to the, to the rest of the department.
- So it was, it was a great place to work.
- And in 2017, I was tasked with researching and
- building out the NYPD's, uh, UAS program.
- Um, I was the project lead for that, so, um, you know, looking at equipment,
- helping develop SOPs, um, you know, helping, uh,
- shape the policies, things like that. So, uh, incredibly lucky to be...
- have been involved in that pro- uh, that program, which
- is still running strong.
- Um, over 30 pilots, uh, within the, the tech unit that, that fly
- drones on an everyday basis with NYPD.
- So yeah, happy to be with you all and, uh, share some of, uh, some of the
- experiences that I've had that, that hopefully can be helpful for
- everybody.
- Yeah. Thanks, guys. Wealth of information here,
- so really excited to see what you
- both have to share, um, with everyone here on the, the webinar.
- Um, it... Before we dive in, though, I do want to cover just a few
- housekeeping items. Um, first and foremost, the question that
- everyone wants to know always, this session is being recorded,
- and you will have access to the recording through Skydio's Airborne
- Insights. Secondly, if you have any questions or
- comments throughout the session, please feel free to drop them in the chat.
- I will be here to monitor those, and we will have time to go through the
- Q&A at the end of the session.
- We want to keep this as informal as we can and kind of just
- chat through these five steps that we have identified to assist your
- agency in implementing a patrol-led deployment.
- It is no secret that recruitment efforts are falling
- short and many agencies are understaffed.
- On the other hand, crime isn't magically disappearing.
- Officers are increasingly being expected to do more with less.
- There are expectations and often promises made to
- communities to respond to calls faster and decrease
- the use of any potential use of force or any other critical
- officer-related incidents.
- Drones are undoubtedly a force multiplier and
- offer numerous advantages when it comes to enhancing
- officer safety. They can obviously cover large
- areas more efficiently. Now I look spooky because I'm in the
- dark. [laughs] Lights are back on.
- Um,
- they can cover large areas more efficiently, and they can assist in
- crime prevention efforts. Um, the concept of patrol-led
- deployment is the foundation for the future of
- drone as first responder, which is otherwise referred to as
- DFR. And today, we want to help educate agencies
- on implementing a patrol-led deployment.
- So patrol-led deployment begins with a UAS, a drone,
- in patrol vehicles, and then it allows for more
- immediate aerial intelligence when responding to calls.
- While I worked for a large metropolitan police department, it is
- not lost on me that most agencies do not have access to
- helicopters or an air unit to provide that
- situational awareness and that additional tracking from above.
- However, drones are making it very possible for
- every officer to provide that same situational awareness and
- tracking with the easy deployment of a drone in the trunk of their
- vehicle.
- Additionally, streaming integrations allow for
- all stakeholders to see what you're seeing on the drone,
- whether that be a real-time crime center or a dispatch
- center or any command staff back at the station.
- With multiple eyes watching that live feed from the
- drone above, there's a better communication to all of
- the officers
- responding on the ground, and then agencies can gather valuable
- real-time intelligence.
- So now that I've kind of laid the foundation for why it's important to start
- implementing patrol-led deployment, I will pass the five steps
- off to the experts here on the call, and we will start with step one,
- an assessment of your operational needs.
- Yeah. Um, so th- this is, this is a good, uh, good place to start.
- And I, I guess maybe a good place is, um, to begin this is to
- look at the two... What's the alternative to a patrol-led
- deployment, right?
- What's the, the other paradigm? And, and really the other paradigm
- is more of like
- a centralized deploy- deployment where you have an expert, a
- team of expert pilots that are assigned to a unit
- that will be called out
- for, for a drone response for, um, overwatch at a hostage
- barricade situation or a, uh, search and rescue or whatever it is.
- Um, and there are drawbacks to that.
- Um, one of the drawbacks to that is that the response times get m- uh,
- much, much longer, right? Um, because the patrol unit has to get there,
- assess the situation, realize that they need a drone,
- and then call out the drone
- unit. And the drone u- it takes more time for
- that drone unit to get there.
- So there's, there's that big time gap, um, that can be filled
- by this other paradigm, which is a patrol-led deployment, which is
- that there is a
- drone in every officer's car, and it's part of your patrol kit.
- Um, it, it becomes part. Just like, uh, you know, everything on your duty belt,
- um, and everything in your patrol bag, the drone just comes with you every day
- when
- you go out on patrol. And what the benefit of that is
- that it reduces those
- response times. As soon as you get to the scene,
- the officer realizes that there
- is a drone that's needed, and they get, get that drone in the air right away,
- which reduces that, that time to, uh, in the air to get that aerial
- perspective, um, reduces it greatly and get,
- you know, re- really increasing and unlocking a lot of value out of that.
- Um, so getting back to, um, assessing your operational needs.
- If you're starting out a drone program, um, you know, the best
- thing to do is just start to look at what gaps you're trying to fill,
- um, by including or implementing drones into,
- into your
- operation. Um, whe- is it search and rescue?
- Is it overwatch at hostage barricade situations?
- And kind of use that to develop a concept of operation.
- Um, uh, Fritz, what do you think?
- Yeah, I mean, I actually I think a little background on
- the patrol-led, 'cause you
- explained it perfectly, both of you.
- Um, but it might be a little bit of nuance
- that is important to, like,
- call out. Um,
- everything's relative, right? So this is kind of related to DFR, and DFR
- was kind
- of unique in that it was a different way to deploy drones.
- As speed is...
- Like you were describing, speed is everything.
- So how do you position a drone to get there as quick as possible?
- DFR obviously is the, is the, is the ability to get a drone there
- before people,
- um, which is, you know, really tough to do.
- So agencies are, you know, "How, how do I get their drones...
- How do I get the drones on the scene as fast as possible?" We kind of learned
- about
- the importance of speed with, you know, tragic incidents like Columbine and stuff,
- where, you know, these incidents w- initial officers would just sort of secure
- the
- scene, call in special weapons and tactics.
- These are advanced teams like you were talking about, like TARU, or,
- you know,
- experts in really a wide range of, uh, tools
- that aren't deployed to patrol officers.
- And Columbine showed that, you know, in this day and age,
- we can't afford to wait
- for those specialized tools and equipment.
- So essentially we brought SWAT to the front lines with, you know, equipping
- officers with advanced weapons and giving them active shooter training.
- And we're seeing that in other tools as well, tasers
- and all, uh, everything.
- If, if it's not there in the first minute, sometimes it's not valuable.
- And that's what
- people were starting to see with the value of drones.
- So, um, DFR,
- uh, kind of showed, hey, it's not just the type of drones
- that you have, it's how
- you deploy them. Um, and, and so historically the...
- it was either DFR and drone in the trunk, and then we s- realized that drone in the
- trunk could describe both a specialized team as well as, uh,
- patrol-led deployment. Um, actually the first agency I
- thought that really got it, they actually coined the train- the...
- coined the term patrol-led was O- Oklahoma City, um,
- led by, uh, Captain Jan- Jason Busserd, um, supported by Sergeant
- Dax LaPorte. They actually did a really good drone
- responders webinar on this,
- um, with, uh, Charles Werner. So it's worth googling that and
- listening to that hour long, because they, they went over six different incidents
- which were
- amazing. Three of which were officer-involved shootings where they
- had a drone
- over- overhead in the first minutes of the
- incident.
- And that's the intent of dr- the patrol-led.
- And
- patrol-led specifically means when you're forming a team, you're,
- you're choosing to put the drones in patrol, not based on the person's
- skill set or their desire to fly a drone, but where they're working and when
- they're working so that you have a drone
- In the first minutes of an incident up in the air providing visual,
- uh, feedback, not only to the pilot but ideally over a streaming solution so
- that command is seeing it, uh, responding units are seeing it.
- You're getting a common operating picture.
- Um, this type of speed can't be done with
- when you're staffing
- it with someone who's a specialized team or, uh, you know,
- maybe on a,
- on a air unit or something where they're experts.
- They, they're able to have a l- a wider variety of drones.
- They're just gonna be 30 minutes to an hour away.
- So, um, and most agencies I think y- ideally would do both
- just like you have, you know, active shooter training and a SWAT team.
- Uh, agencies like [laughs] , like New York, uh, could, can do both and,
- and
- Oklahoma are big enough to do both.
- Uh, that's what was so unique about them.
- That they intentionally, um, just picked people out of patrol,
- trained them, gave them a drone that was easy to use, um, easy to, quick to
- deploy. Uh, you know, easy to unfold
- in their trunk, not something large that would take two people to manage
- and basically said, "Hey, your job, your primary responsibility, uh,
- upon arrival is, is, you know, once you've secured your safety, is get
- that drone up. Um, secure the scene." And it be...
- And it just made it much more scalable.
- So a little more background on patrol-led deployment as opposed to other type of
- deployment. Um, but we're gonna go into talking about
- how to start a program, grow a program, no matter what style that you guys
- decide. Uh, but something to think about.
- Do I want it to be a specialized unit? Do I want it to be patrol-led?
- Do I want to do DFR? Those are three different, um,
- types of deployments
- that really make a big difference.
- And it... Yeah, and, and I think you made a very good point
- there, that it doesn't
- have to be exclusively one or the other.
- Um, a lot of times it, it could be a blend of both where you do
- have,
- uh, drones in the hands of some, uh, some expert units like, uh,
- crime scene documentation and, and accident scenes where they're gonna
- use it for
- those niche use cases. Um, but the, the majority of the patrol
- officers will have the drones for that quick overwatch, um, uh, use
- case as well. So it doesn't, doesn't necessarily have to be one
- or the other.
- Um, but yeah, I mean, getting back to the slide here is,
- you know, like really
- assess the needs. F- Figure out what you're trying to use the
- drones for
- and use that as a, as a springboard to start developing a
- concept of operations and, and really like distill that to the
- best, uh, uh, as, as best as you can to really key points
- that you want to use the drones for.
- Um, and, and develop how you want to start, uh,
- you know, developing
- a program from there.
- Yeah. Good point. Actually that probably brings Noreen into the
- conversation a bit
- because, um,
- you know, the fact that they're in everyone's trunks,
- they're gonna find a lot of
- reasons to use the drones, right? Um, and one of those would be accident scene
- reconstruction or evidence gathering.
- Um, and so have it... Having them broadly deployed.
- Um, maybe, maybe not t- teaching everyone every way of
- using a drone like a specialized unit would, but maybe picking some
- that would just
- do strictly accident reconstruction.
- Others that might do indoor, others that might do, uh, situational
- overwatch, search and rescue, et cetera.
- I don't know if Noreen you want-
- Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
- Um, obviously there's a huge need for drones
- in the documentation space, whether
- it's for crash or crime. Um, but really what's interesting is as we go
- out and we talk to agencies across the country, um, or
- even globally, you realize that every department, um, operates
- so differently and uniquely, and they always throw out a, "Wow,
- we had a scenario
- last week, it would've really been nice to have a
- drone." And it's a unique
- situation that we potentially didn't think of, right?
- And so there's just such a need and a place for drones
- in law enforcement. And then when you sit down
- and you think about all these
- primary use cases, you're gonna find out that there
- are many ways that
- you can be using drones in your day-to-day use.
- You know, a little segue 'cause they said we
- wouldn't have to stick to the
- PowerPoint.
- [laughs]
- Um, but there's been some interesting news.
- Uh, um, the FAA had some rulings where, you know, you can do a lot
- more under a certificate of authorization.
- Um,
- and I don't want to get into a 107 versus a COA thing, but the
- ability to operate under a COA and basically do everything you need to
- might open up, uh, this patrol-led deployment model.
- There's been some fear people having to learn FAA, uh, rules
- and take the 107 and pay for the fee, and how do I keep, you know,
- 100 people in my agency all up to date w- through the FAA testing?
- Why don't I just, you know,
- o- all operate under a COA and, you know, s- just have
- internal training? And that would meet the requirements of a COA.
- And, um,
- that, you know, a- as we see agencies considering
- that option,
- um, everyone's kind of not been brave enough
- to do it.
- They just sort of, uh, CYA where they get their FAA 107
- and operate
- under a COA. Um, we might see agencies comfortable
- enough to say, "Hey, look. We... Our training program is good enough.
- We're... FAA is sending a signal that they want us to be able to operate
- under
- a public aircraft operator's, uh, you know,
- authority." And, um, that way you don't have
- to pay the, the, the fee and take the test every year,
- and it's a lot...
- It might be a lot easier to manage, and that way it'd be easier to deploy
- drones
- broadly, right? Here, here's a few drones.
- We'll train you up just on accident reconstruction or evidence scene
- collection.
- Um, here's a drones for, uh, your patrol officers first on scene who,
- you know, might have just a, a simple like an X2 where...
- A Skydio X2, where they just, you know, in charge of getting it up in the air and
- getting the video feed for, for situational awareness.
- You know, you don't have to be... Every drone operator doesn't have to be an
- expert
- in everything. And so, um, just as the industry and
- agencies are rethinking how they deploy and who does what, I
- think you'll see a lot broader adoption across
- every aspect of policing.
- Yeah. That's a, that's a great point, Fritz, because, you know, the regulatory
- environment has changed a lot, um, since, you know, uh, back in
- 2017 when we were starting to develop our program.
- Um, you know, the, the LAANC grid system didn't exist.
- Um, and, you know, um, some of these, uh, quick, um,
- authorizations didn't, didn't exist.
- Um, so now, like it, it actually- Potentially makes it a lot easier for
- agencies to be able to, um, operate under public aircraft operators,
- um, and, and be able to leverage all the things
- that, that come with that.
- And it's also, you know, something that you wanna build into those concept of
- operations, um, you know, kind of building out a game plan on how
- you want to roll out the program, um, before you get to the next step, which is
- to, um, you know, start developing some internal
- champions. Um, so if we can go to the next slide.
- And so this is... Uh, and, and Fritz can, uh, speak to this as well.
- This is probably the next, uh, big step is, you know,
- once you have a good
- concept of operations, at least a skeleton of how you want, um,
- uh,
- to deploy this program, um, identify people, uh,
- within your organization that are, that are in a leadership position that can
- champion this, um, this for you. Um, you know, bring the pr- uh,
- bring your idea to them, um, explain it, and, and
- get them to kind of buy into that and, and champion it, and bring it up,
- um, you know, to, to higher levels of leadership because you
- are gonna get...
- need buy-in, um, and we're gonna talk about this in further
- slides.
- You're gonna need buy-in from, you know, everybody from community, um,
- organizations or, or, um, uh, you know,
- like higher levels of leadership.
- Um, so you, you need somebody, uh, within the, uh, your department that,
- that, uh, believes in this program and is going to take that
- journey with you to make it a reality.
- I couldn't agree more. Um, we're s- kind of biased, Deepu,
- 'cause in Northern probably all three of us were champions internally.
- Not the only ones, but certainly, um, take a lot of pride in, in driving
- forward the program. Um, but I personally...
- I think, uh, this is probably the most important
- step, is to find that person, uh, or maybe
- a team of people who were... are gonna be your, um,
- directly responsible individuals.
- The ones that just are gonna take ownership or
- are gonna insist on it, and keep
- selling it, and keep pushing it from, from, from below
- upward. And we're in the early stages of drone,
- uh, teams where,
- you know, it's not something that's widely accepted
- and city councils are funding
- it and demanding it of their agencies.
- We're still in the days of, of, you know, end users trying to convince,
- uh, everyone u- above them the value of it.
- And, uh, it's g- obviously spreading and, and
- it's becoming much more, uh, intuitive and known
- in the industry as a value. Um, but that's still going on.
- So I think, uh, you know, identifying, cultivating that
- internal champion. If you're a command staff, or a chief,
- or a sheriff who
- wants a drone team, um, it's, you know...
- You can be your own champion, but if you can find someone below you,
- you know, uh,
- with the time and the energy to really, really drive it, it's gonna
- ensure success.
- Yeah. This is... And, and that's a great point. This...
- And Fritz, you were, you were a captain at Chula Vista, so you,
- you were the
- champion. You know, for me, like, I was a detective.
- I was way low down in the food chain. So I...
- It was really important for, um, for, for me and, and my
- team to get, um, somebody in leadership.
- And for us it was, uh, ins- the, uh, the commanding officer of TARU, who was,
- uh,
- Inspector Greg Antonsen at that time, who, you know, we presented this idea
- to. We said, "Hey, listen, you know, we have all these tall buildings and,
- and when
- we're at hostage barricade situations, we have no way of getting eyes,
- um, you know, uh, in through those windows to find out what
- the situ- uh, you know,
- situation of the hostages, what the condition of the hosta- uh,
- hostages, the type
- of weapons involved and things like that." We
- were relying on things like pole
- cameras, leaning over, um, you know, from high s- high-rise buildings and
- hanging pole cameras down to see what's going on. So drones presented...
- That was, like, the, the initial use case that we came up with,
- you know, that
- drone is basically a flying pole camera that we can bring up, um, at these hostage
- situations. And, you know, we brought it to our, um,
- commanding officer and,
- you know, uh, he loved the idea and he kind of embraced it.
- Um, you know, like, the, the, the old saying is, you know,
- great ideas go nowhere
- without visionary leadership, you know?
- And it was that leadership that, that kind of got the ball rolling.
- Um, he brought the idea to, you know, our, our chief of department, who was the
- highest ranking member of the depart- uh, the MIPD at that time, and then to the
- police commissioner, and then to the mayor, and from, you know,
- from there on.
- So that...
- Identifying that one, uh, internal champion or, or those group of
- people that can help you really, um, make this vision a reality,
- um, that's really, really important.
- And,
- uh, and I'll, I'll let you guys take it from there.
- Yeah, absolutely to both of those.
- And then, you know, the next step once you've identified your
- internal
- champions who can help with, you know, the whole idea of creating
- drone programs in your agency, the next thing is to secure your
- community buy-in.
- So yeah, Deepu probably have a lot to say on this.
- I'll start off.
- Um, this was super important obviously at
- Chula Vista,
- um, because we were trying to do something
- different with drones first responder
- and, and I'm sure a lot of listeners have heard
- about, uh, Chula Vista,
- probably even visited it. Um, you know, they're pretty famous for putting on,
- uh, tours, uh, for not only the community, but, uh,
- agencies. There's probably been 100 agencies through
- there.
- Um, but the thing I learned early, and I learned this from, um,
- Vern Sallee, who actually... who started the team itself before we even
- had a dr- I
- think we had a donated drone that was from a local power
- company, and we never even used the thing.
- It just kind of sparked off the desire to, to have a drone.
- And so they,
- you know, went through the process of, of, uh, writing a policy.
- But the community outreach started from the beginning.
- They invited, uh,
- the ACLU and a lot of community stake leaders to come in and, and meet.
- And of course, uh, our chief, uh, Roxana Kennedy,
- sh- you don't forget her if you've ever meet her.
- She had the, the trust of the community, really knocked down the walls.
- She was the, the ultimate in champions in terms of
- driving through the drone.
- But, um-
- And then maintaining that. We did a lot of community outreach
- when we were talking
- about DFR and Drones First Responder.
- So not only a- starting the team, but moving into this, uh, unique,
- uh, nationwide sort of, um, you know, the idea of drones over your
- neighborhood, uh, in everyday out- patrol.
- Not, not patrolling, but responding to everyday 911 calls was,
- was really
- unique. And the fact that we didn't have a lot of pushback was,
- was a
- testament to getting the community's buy-in. And that's...
- And city council, everybody understood the value.
- They sold it.
- They sold it, um, they sold the, the concept because it meant
- community safety and just, you know, maintaining transparency, um,
- providing feedback, being accessible to the public,
- answering their questions.
- Um, they just felt like if there was ever a point where they had to pull
- the pin,
- that they, they had access. And so making sure that they always
- had access and securing community buy-in.
- So anyone starting a team, that's where you start.
- You start by waving the flag saying, "We wanna do drone program.
- We want your buy-in where it's for you. Please give us feedback.
- We'll be accessible. We'll a- a- answer your questions." Um, and that's
- in a small community at Chula Vista. Relatively small.
- Certainly relative to NYPD. Um, so I'm
- sure NYPD's [laughs] it's 10X in most agencies.
- Yeah. That was... I mean, when... In, in 2017, 2018, um, when we were
- developing the program, that was a huge effort, um, by the department
- to, to reach out to the community and, uh, community ca- advocacy
- groups. Um, and, and it wasn't an idea
- that we came up with.
- It was actually as a result of, of stories that we heard of painful
- lessons learned by other agencies that didn't go that route, that just
- decided to buy drones and start a drone program.
- And the first time the community saw the drones in the air was at an active
- call-out. And they, you know, the reaction was, um, very negative.
- You know, they, they... "How come you didn't involve us in this
- process?" And they
- th- they thought it was being, uh, something that was done to them
- rather than, than something that's done for them,
- right?
- So, um, the, the NYPD, um, you know, we worked with the police
- commissioner's project management office. We had people from legal.
- Um, we had, we have people, um, from, from the community affairs,
- um, engage with the New York Civil Lib- Liberties Union, um,
- other advocacy groups, um, city council.
- And we kind of, you know, we brought this concept of operations
- that we developed,
- and we opened our books to them and said, "This is what we're planning, and we want
- your feedback." And we were open to their feedback and,
- and one of
- the things that helped out was that, um, we kind of modeled a lot of our policy
- on established recommendations from the ACLU on,
- uh, drone usage. So we, by and large, it, you know, kind of
- modeled it based on those recommendations. So there was...
- We can just say, like, we took these recommendations
- and we built them into our,
- um, you know, our, our CONOPs and our, and our SOPs.
- And that
- actually went a long way to kind of gaining the trust of the, the community.
- I mean, I don't think you're ever going to get,
- you know, a warm hug and say,
- "Thank you for bringing drones, uh, into the, into the community." But,
- you know,
- there was, um, you know, at least
- from the community, uh, they, they understood that they
- were part of the process,
- and their feedback was important.
- And, uh, that, that went a long way in, in, you know, securing
- that buy-in for the community.
- And I'll segue over to Noreen on this.
- But, um, you know, if you feel or anticipate that
- there's gonna be pushback, then start with some,
- some no-brainers like the
- fire department. Everyone's l- loves fire fighters.
- Um, and there's obviously a lot of good, great use cases there, purely
- lifesaving and not a lot of the issues with, uh, privacy and,
- and, uh, things that come along with policing.
- Um, but, uh, but the easiest use case, I think, for everyone to see the
- value is accident scene re- reconstruction, evidence collection.
- Yeah. Absolutely. And I think, you know,
- transparency always builds trust with the community.
- And we're starting to get to a point where, um, you know, people
- understand that there's not a whole lot of places we can go without being on camera
- somewhere. You know, certainly I worked in Las Vegas.
- You can't make a move on the strip without being on 100 different cameras at the
- same time, and people understand that, and they almost expect that.
- Um, but having those communications is what is the most
- important because once the community realizes you're not spying on them, you're
- not looking in their backyard for no reason,
- but you're using it to increase your
- response time, to help with crime, to help, you know, maybe
- get rid of these pursuits that are happening through your cities
- or document these
- crash scenes faster so that they can get to
- and from where they need to go and the
- road isn't shut down. Those are the types of things
- that help them understand the
- benefit to their agency having drones in their, um,
- toolkit.
- So once you've kind of assessed what, uh, your operational needs are and
- why you need drones, and then you've cultivated both your
- internal
- champions and you have secured your community buy-in, the
- next step is to tackle the paperwork.
- Can we skip this part? That's boring. Go on.
- [laughs] No.
- [laughs] I'll let you take the first crack at this,
- Ritz.
- Oh, great. So this is where, you know, this is where your champion, I think,
- makes all the difference.
- Um, a- and a team of champions, right? Uh, we all...
- Every agency has several champions.
- And you'll have some that love to fly and others that love the processes and the
- recording. Um, and then, uh, there'll be some that
- wanna tackle the, the waivers and the SOPs and the training and,
- and, uh, you know. Certainly
- finding the, the directly responsible individuals for
- those and, and
- holding them accountable and making sure the,
- the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted is super important.
- But I think you start with defining your CONOPs.
- You know, obviously not only defining them in your
- head, but putting them down on
- paper, your standard operating procedures, your policy, um-
- Those are things you want to get down early on.
- I think what was unique, uh, not, not unique but a good
- strategy was, um, initially to, to develop a, a drone
- committee.
- Um, again, this was before I got on.
- But the, they developed the drone committee,
- assembled people, and their whole
- task was to write the policy. You know, which was different than the operational
- protocol or the SOP. Just the policy, like the how, how you're gonna respond,
- how
- you're gonna treat the evidence, uh, you know, what you will do
- and what you won't
- do. Something that explains to the agencies
- or, or the community that you
- serve that your mission and your values.
- Um, and so craft that, get through that, um, whether it gets through city council
- or county council or whatever.
- And then once you're up and running, then, uh, you know, establish
- a, a clear training program. Um,
- a standard operating procedure for basics.
- And inevitably you're gonna wanna do some advanced operations, um,
- like the tactical beyond visual line of sight waiver you'll want.
- You'll, you'll be thinking or wanting to do drones first responder.
- You're gonna need beyond visual line of sight for this.
- Um, you know, we do work for Skydio, so every once in a
- while we're gonna throw a,
- a pitch in for Skydio [laughs] 'cause we do, uh...
- We, we have a team that will help you with this certainly.
- Um, definitely.
- If you've ever done it yourself, it's, you know...
- If the mon- if you have the money, it's definitely worth the money 'cause
- it's a
- lot of work. Um, uh, but, uh, yeah.
- And, and one other thing we haven't said
- is safety in numbers.
- You know, reach out to your neighboring agencies.
- Um, reach out to, uh,
- uh, those that are training nearby you and
- exchange policies, exchange training manuals, exchange
- SOPs. Uh, cops are great at cutting and pasting.
- There's safety in numbers. Um, don't reinvent the wheel, all the other s-
- or,
- uh, sayings, uh, there's value in.
- So y-
- you want... Your, your program should look a lot like the
- others around you
- and have the same type of, uh,
- wording,
- policy.
- Yeah. Yeah, those, those are really, really good points.
- Uh, you know, the, the policy really is, is the key.
- Um, you know, we, uh, when we were developing the program,
- we met biweekly
- with a, with a working group, um, that included legal, community
- affairs, um, you know, um, the pro...
- Police commissioner's office. Um, pretty much everybody had, um, you know,
- um, a deputy commissioner of public
- information.
- Everybody was involved in crafting the policy, and there was a lot of
- back and forth. We just wanted to make sure
- that we get it right the first time,
- um, and then use that policy to, to develop SOPs
- and, and training curriculums and things like that.
- And, and like Fri- Fritz mentioned, you know, you don't have to do all this
- yourself. There, there's a ton of resources available,
- especially now.
- Um, you know, Drone Responders, uh, is, is a great one.
- Uh, Chief Charles Werner does a great job of
- keeping a huge, um,
- uh, vault of a lot of, uh, SOPs, uh, that you h- can get
- access to. Um, like I said, cut and paste.
- You know, no, no need to, to do all this yourself, uh,
- all over again.
- Um, but, but like Fritz said, if you kind of want to push the easy
- button,
- um, you know, and, uh, you wanna work with Skydio, we do have a,
- an amazing
- regulatory team that can kind of pretty much help you craft the, the
- certificate of authorizations, um, help you develop, uh, um,
- policies and, and training, uh, curriculums and everything.
- Everything pretty much that you would need to,
- to stand up a program.
- Um, you know, Jakey Stolz, Jen Player, um, Brandon Groves, they're, they're
- great, great at what they do. So, um, you know, if, if you wanna
- do... uh, press the easy button, you can definitely reach out to us and,
- and we
- can, um, you know, we can help you out with that.
- Um, but there are a lot of resources available
- out there.
- Don't try to do it yourself. You know, reach out to your neighboring agency.
- Especially when it comes to developing training curriculums and things like that.
- Your state might already have, um, training programs, uh, for...
- New York State has the State Preparedness Training Center up in, uh, Oriskany, New
- York.
- You can go up there, um, take drone training for everything from
- Part
- 107 to actual hands-on training and, and, um, you know, it's all
- free. They'll even put you up for free, um, at a hotel.
- So, um, there's, there's probably, you know, resources like that available,
- uh,
- in your state, so just seek that out and, um, you know, uh,
- leverage it.
- Yeah. Thanks. I know you both kind of wanted to skip
- this slide, but I think this
- is the scariest part for everyone that knows why they could be using drones
- and want to implement a unit, but then they're like, "Ugh,
- I don't know about
- getting all the waivers and the paperwork." So just,
- I guess our huge point here
- is there are many resources out there to help you.
- Don't get it to a point where you get to the paperwork and you decide, "This is too
- much work. We can't do it." Um, we are here to help you.
- There are several resources out there.
- A lot of agencies just put their SOPs and their policies out on
- a simple Google search. You can find those on their websites as
- well.
- So, uh, a lot of things that you can look to there.
- And the final step in- Oh, sorry
- Yeah, lots out there. And then the final thing in our steps
- are to
- choose the right equipment. You guys wanna speak specifically to that,
- on choosing
- the equipment for your needs?
- Well, we all work for Skydio, so who do you think we're gonna...
- [laughs] No, this is, this is a, a big topic really.
- I'll let Deepu start.
- Yeah. Um, especially when it, when you...
- if you're use- doing, uh, the patrol-led, uh, deployment model,
- um, you know, o- one of the things that you wanna do is, um...
- and a- any officer can attest to this, the equipment that you reach for, um, you
- want it to be reliable and you want it to be easy to use.
- Whether it's something on your duty belt, anything in your, in your duty bag, um,
- you want it to... Every time you reach for it
- and you try to use it, it has to
- work. Um, and it has to be relatively easy to use in
- a stressful environment like a call-out, like a hostage barricade situation
- or an active shooter. Um, you know, you don't, you don't want the complexity
- of a, of a 45-step setup process before you can
- get the drone
- in the air. Um, it, it has to be quick, it has to be easy to use.
- Um, so, you know-
- Based on your SOPs and your use cases, um,
- choose the equipment that's gonna- that's gonna do the job for you
- and it's gonna
- work every time. Um, you know, the, the world of drones is, is
- continually evolving. When, uh, when we were selecting equipment,
- there weren't a lot of choices out there.
- Um, there was one three-letter company
- that was pretty much the only choice.
- Um, the time- times have changed, you know. There are options out there.
- Skydio makes some amazing, amazing drones that are very,
- very quick to
- deploy, easy to use, perfect for, like, a patrol deployment where,
- you know... Things that you have to think about when you're,
- um, when you're using
- a patrol-led model is, you know, how, how quickly can the officer,
- uh, get the drone in the air, s- you know, start a live stream and send that video
- stream back to HQ or other responding units so they have that
- situational awareness.
- So that user interface, how, how easy is that to navigate, um, in a stressful
- situation? Um, you know, uh, how quickly, uh, quickly can you
- launch the drone? How easy is it to launch the drone?
- Um, and, you know, you have to think about, like, uh,
- you know, currency
- requirements. How are you tracking, um, the, the amount of times a
- pilot has flown, you know? You- you've set, um, usage and currency
- requirements on your, your SOPs. Um, how are you gonna track
- that and make sure that your pilots are flying, um, you know, to, to make sure
- they're current with their, uh, their requirements?
- So all those, you know, um, kind of lead you to
- choosing the equipment that, that's gonna work every time, you know.
- I've, I've flown a whole bunch of different
- drones.
- Um, you know, I, I have to say not just w- because I work for Skydio.
- The reason that I work for Skydio is because it...
- Skydio, uh, I saw from the beginning that Skydio equipment, uh,
- the AI and the autonomy that's built into the drones just make them really, really
- easy to use, um, easy to deploy, um, [object clatters] and pretty much
- like a, a, a seamless, um, seamless workflow when it comes to live
- streaming or, or scene documentation and things like that.
- And, and Noreen and Fritz can, um, you know, chime in here.
- Noreen, like if... I'm sure you've used 3D Scan, you know,
- and how, how
- easy that is to use compared to, you know, drones of, of, uh,
- of previous times.
- Yeah. Absolutely. Um, and I think when you talk about choosing the right
- equipment,
- think about the equipment that can do all the things you need it to
- do, you
- know. You can, um... With 3D Scan specifically, I think
- the biggest question I was always asked in the crime
- and crash reconstruction
- world was, I never know how to take my photos so
- that I can
- get a good 3D model from the scene that I capture.
- And Skydio's 3D Scan feature takes all the guesswork out of it,
- kind of does it all for you so you don't have to think about overlap and angles and
- how many photos. And then once you put
- that through a photogrammetry engine,
- you have a, you know, 3D point cloud of your scene that you can
- use for reconstruction purposes or any type of forensic
- analysis. So again, using the equipment
- that can do all the things that you need
- it to do.
- Yeah. And just to add to that, in fact, um, we, we referenced that
- OKC, the Oklahoma City, um, patrol-led deployment
- process. That's, that was Skydio. Uh, and in their...
- They're, they're not endorsing Skydio in any way.
- They're just Skydio customers.
- And in the webinar, they described why they chose Skydio,
- and it was specifically
- for, among other reasons, um, because it was easy to fly.
- As you know, Deepu going around and doing demos, you know, our thing
- is find
- someone in the crowd who's never flown a drone, hand them the controller, and tell
- them to try and, you know, crash it.
- And that's really a big deal. It's kind of an eye-opening thing.
- If you've ever flown a Skydio, you, you realize, yeah, that, that makes a big
- difference. Cer- certainly, if you're gonna deploy it to people who
- aren't drone
- enthusiasts, they don't have hours of stick time, um,
- you know, they're gonna be
- deploying it pretty much in operations all the time so those nerves
- are, uh, you know, you know, adrenaline's flowing.
- And so you want something that you- you're getting some help on, right?
- It's kind of easy to fly. It's quick to deploy,
- and you're not gonna crash.
- That was the selling point and why, uh, OKC, among other
- reasons, um,
- [clicks tongue] uh, picked it. And so that type of, you know, whether it's
- Skydio or some other drone,
- depending on what type of deployment you're gonna do.
- Are you gonna- you gonna, you know, do indoor operations?
- Are you gonna do search and rescue?
- Are you gonna do, um, accident and recon- scene reconstruction and evidence
- collection? You know, picking the right kind of drone,
- picking the right kind of
- drone that has the software capabilities that you need, um,
- uh, i- is a big part of it. That's usually where people start.
- I think if you take one thing away from, from these five steps is the
- equipment kind of is at the bottom of it.
- Um, and people tend to start with equipment.
- Um, and, and I mentioned in Chula Vista we
- were given, given a free drone, which
- can kind of spark the creation of the team.
- Um, so there's a little bit of irony there.
- But, uh, I, I think there's a lot of factors to look
- at before you
- just decide what kind of drone it is, is how are you gonna operate, which ones
- offer, um, those best features, um, end to
- end that will solve your problem based on what, what problems you
- have and how you hope to solve them.
- I want to give a nod to the last two points here, um, in training and education
- first and foremost. Uh, you know, Skydio has a whole team of
- people who have been in your shoes, and so they understand what you're
- trying to do and how you need to get there.
- And so having access to people who can help you
- is incredibly helpful throughout this process.
- And then integration with existing systems.
- Um, you know, agencies are spending lots of money on all
- different kinds
- of systems throughout their, um, you know, use in
- patrol or just in the police department operations.
- And being able to integrate what you're doing with a drone with those systems
- is really important so that you're not kind of, you know,
- no longer
- using one so you can use something different, but it's so that they all work
- together seamlessly to get the job done quickly.
- Yeah. So those are, those are great points, Noreen.
- Um, you know, I'm, I'm always, uh- And, and awe
- about our training team. Like, they're just, like, fantastic.
- They're a fantastic group of people.
- They're, they're really, like, experts in, in, uh, the Skydio
- equipment and, you know, the, the tra- I've seen them.
- I've been at multiple events where we've been doing training and, and I always
- learn something new every time [laughs] and sitting in on those classrooms.
- Um, and then the integration part is very, uh, also very important, like you
- said. Um, you know, the, the drone is going to be integrated into an
- existing system, right? Um, so a lot of times it's a video management
- system,
- um, or, or, um, you know, a, a larger,
- uh, a real-time crime center system or something like that.
- Um, and we do have a lot of, uh, APIs, publicly available AT-
- APIs, APIs that you can connect to, um, to, to do
- your fleet management, to do your live streaming,
- things like that.
- Um, Skydio does have, uh, ATAK integration, which is fantastic
- for tactical operations. Um, but yeah, all those things that are, are things
- to consider, um, when you're selecting the equipment also.
- How well does it integr- integrate with the systems
- that you have in place now?
- Um, and, and what other... And this is something that, Fritz, I'm sure you can
- agree, the... and Noreen, is something, like, a lot of peop- uh, a lot of people
- don't consider when they're starting to...
- starting a drone program, is all the other things that you need, um,
- to
- support the drone, right? That the, then the drone program.
- Like, you know, uh, what kind of vehicles, you know, charging, battery charging,
- um, uh, you know, like fleet management, pilot tracking, and all
- these different things, um, that you have to consider.
- So there's, there's a whole ecosystem that,
- that supports the drone operation that
- you'd also need to consider and, and select wisely as
- well.
- No, that's a great last point. A, a little bit of a shout-out to Axon,
- I think,
- that show- really showed the way of the...
- You know, early on there was a bunch of, you know, different cameras competing to
- be the body-worn camera, and the one that won wasn't, you know,
- the best lens or
- the best, um, you know, feature. It was
- the, the overall package, the ecosystem, the wa- the best,
- easiest one to use on a day-to-day basis.
- The one that you could charge quickly, you know, upload the, the video quickly,
- manage the video, um, share it with the DA and the, and the
- defense attorney. All of those other things
- that come with body-worn.
- And so that's kind of what you should look at in terms of the type of
- drones. Well, not only the, the drone itself, but all the other
- features that mean that it's gonna be easy for you to
- implement
- in day-to-day patrol.
- And what are the-
- Excellent. Um, we have about 14 minutes left here,
- and I do have a few
- questions, and this first one kind of goes into
- choosing the right equipment here.
- But the first question is, does Skydio have an entry drone
- or strictly outdoor
- platform? So if you guys want to speak to that.
- Was that the question, uh, do we have an indoor drone?
- Yeah, like an indoor entry drone or just strictly outdoor.
- Yeah. So, um,
- it, it's a tough question to answer because
- our drones fly very
- well indoors. So, um, if you're not familiar with Skydio, um,
- our
- drones operate, uh, our, uh, drones fly using visual
- navigation. So there, there are a series of six cameras that
- are built onto the
- drone that allow it to basically see and understand the world
- around it and, and act based on what it sees.
- So if you're flying in a GPS-denied environment like in, in, um, like
- inside a stadium or inside a school, uh, or something like that
- where, where there is no GPS available, the drone will fly perfectly
- fine. Um, it is not designed to be an indoor
- tactical drone,
- um, but it, it performs very well inside.
- The only caveat is that, um, because the drone needs to be able to see
- its
- environment, if it's not relying on GPS, you need sufficient light.
- So as long as you have enough light for the drone to operate, so something like,
- you know, God forbid, an, a active shooter inside a school, um,
- you know, with
- wide hallways that are well lit, the drone will perform fine, uh, in there.
- But, uh, you know, it's not designed to be an indoor tactical
- drone.
- Yeah, we're tactical-centric, but, you know,
- there's a lot of indoor operations, as
- Deepu alluded to, that aren't, you know, middle of the night, uh,
- in a barricaded suspect type. You know, it, it's because it can
- fly indoors, it's not reliant on GPS, um, you can do indoor
- scans, and there's all kinds of new, um,
- information there, uh, from,
- from the industry there that needs to fly indoors to take photos
- and do 3D
- scans and, uh, you know, fly under bridges anywhere
- around energized, um, power systems.
- There's all kinds of things that don't have to do with public safety
- where the drone is actually a perfect fit.
- But it kind of depends on what you meant by indoors.
- Okay, next question. What are your thoughts on flying under Part 107
- versus obtaining a COA?
- So we could probably do a whole other show on that.
- Um-
- [laughs]
- Like I said, most agencies, I think mature, uh, agencies are...
- when we're talking public safety again are, um,
- will do both just because they want, um,
- just for CYA. But if you're flying under a COA,
- unless you say,
- "I'm flying under a 107," then you're flying under a COA.
- And now, um,
- fewer and fewer operations require 107 versus a COA.
- Uh, used to be that you... to take pictures or fly a parade
- or something that
- was non-emergency response, you'd ha- or training even, have to be
- flying under 107. And now I think with the new rulings,
- all those can be done
- under a Certificate of Authorization.
- Um, so I think you'll see more and more agencies just going solely,
- um, uh, flying as a COA because, um, if you, if you
- can fly under a COA, unless you specifically say, "This
- is a 107 mission," you're
- gonna be found to be flying under a COA.
- So your own internal training and, and the preparation you've done
- is gonna be
- relevant. You're not gonna be protected by, uh,
- the fact that you, you know, you
- passed the 107 test. They're gonna be considering you as
- operational under that COA
- anyway. So,
- um, I'm not sure if that's the answer, but that's kind of a little bit of the
- distinction, the evolution of the question
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I think, I think that's a, that's a great way to put it, Fred.
- So I mean, when, um, you know, early on there were a lot of restrictions
- to,
- um, operating under a COA, like training or non-emergency type
- flights where,
- where you had to fly, fly Part 107. Um, you know, in New York City
- specifically, the, the LAANC, um, the grid wasn't active until,
- um, much later. Um, so we weren't able to, to leverage
- the, uh, the LAANC grid either. So we had to kind of use a
- hybrid system where certain times we were flying under the COA,
- certain times we
- were flying under Part 107. Training and things like that would be under, under
- Part 107. But I think more and more, um, agencies can
- and operate under a COA and, and leverage all the benefits that come
- with that. Um, and also use that to, to, um,
- self-certify their pilots as well.
- Um, so,
- uh, there are, you know, there are some reporting requirements
- and things like
- that, uh, that, that come with, uh, operating under a COA, but
- nothing that's so, so burdensome that, um, that you're not gonna be able to,
- to run a, run a, a group with it.
- How would you mitigate the drone in every trunk concept and the
- increase in liability risk?
- Yeah. So obviously I, I think the question
- is pointing to the fact that, you know,
- is you, you're no longer giving drones just to a
- very highly trained, specialized
- unit. You're, you're taking some more risk by giving it
- out to people who
- don't, you know, spend hours and hours doing training.
- How do you mitigate that risk? Um,
- you know, I mean, risk is a tough, uh, subject to discuss because
- it's so... You know, it's hard to, hard to define.
- Um, police agencies are taking risks all the time.
- You know, you're, you've got 20-year-olds racing around,
- 23 or 4-year-olds
- racing around in a city, lights and siren.
- Um, they're kicking doors in, they're fighting fires.
- I mean, the amount of risk in public safety
- is through the roof
- already. Um, so drones
- thankfully, knock on wood, really haven't, um,
- raised a lot of concern in that area.
- You don't have a lot of issues, um, in terms of, you know,
- people retiring from
- drone injuries, accidents. And, uh, you know, while bad things
- happen, can happen w- doing anything, and certainly with drones and
- we want people to be responsible, at least historically, it's been a very,
- very low risk for agencies operationally.
- And certainly much less risk putting a drone up above or
- sending a drone around the corner than, say, a, a K9 unit or having a
- person stick their head around the corner or whatever.
- So while you may be taking more risk with the drone
- than you would if you didn't fly them specific to the drone, I think the drone
- actually reduces everyday operational risk versus other
- things you could be doing without drones, or would have to do without drones.
- Yeah, those are great points. And I, I would also add that, you know, it,
- it just
- goes back to those five steps that we discussed.
- Pr- specifically developing really robust
- standard operating
- procedures, um, that, that you make sure
- that your pilots adhere to
- and they internalize it. Um, and, and, and a really robust training
- program, uh, training and currency program where you make sure
- that your pilots are
- well-trained, they know the equipment inside out, um,
- they know their,
- the, the policy of the agency inside out and,
- um, you know, they're,
- they're just well, uh, comfortable operating the equipment.
- Um, and if you can do that and you get the pilots to really
- buy in and take this, take this seriously, um, you,
- you buy down the risk considerably.
- And, and the other part about it is the equipment.
- Again, the equipment that you choose.
- Um, you know, uh, having drones that have robust obstacle avoidance,
- um, that aren't exclusively reliant on GPS for
- navigation.
- Um, you know, all those things can reduce risk,
- especially when you're operating in
- urban environments where GPS can be spotty.
- Um, you know, the, like, you, you reduce a lot of risk of crashes.
- So, you know, training, equipment, um, and, and those
- SOPs can really help buy down that risk.
- Absolutely. In patrol-led deployment or a more traditional DFR
- deployment, have you run into a scenario where the UAS
- are
- contractor operated?
- So yeah. Um, Chula Vista uses Flying Lions.
- Uh,
- and you know, there are other companies out there, uh, that
- offer,
- um, services to staff the rooftop. So we've heard of that.
- Um, it's not super common. Um, it is more common with DFR than just
- traditional operations. Um,
- but yeah. It, I, I've seen
- that in the past and certainly it's, uh...
- Those agencies that are doing DFR might want to use some
- civilians to staff the rooftop because trained cops, trained
- firefighters are pretty expensive.
- Uh, but typically you want ex-
- You know, the, the drone is there to replace the SME.
- So operationally you're gonna need someone who understands the job the dr- the
- drone's trying to do. You don't want people, uh,
- flying a drone in police work or
- fire work that are experts in drones.
- You want 'em to be experts in public safety, and the drone's there to
- be a tool to, like, put that person somewhere they don't wanna be
- or
- can't be. Um, so at some point you're gonna have to have
- first
- responders operationally, uh, using the drone or at least
- consuming the data that the drone is providing.
- Um, otherwise the drone's kind of pointless.
- Deepu, this question's for you, so I'm gonna test your memory here.
- What was the training program that you were speaking about earlier?
- Um, oh, uh, so I... We did speak about the tr- uh, the
- Skydio's training program. Um, we do have, uh, an in-person.
- We also have an online training, um, that, that comes with the equipment.
- So, um, you can log in. It's a self-paced thing where you just
- follow the
- videos and it walks you through the entire, um, you know, the, the
- entire system, the Skydio system.
- How to safely operate it, um, uh, troubleshooting, things like that.
- So that was one of the things that I referenced.
- And then the, the training curriculum, um, um, that I
- was talking about was, uh, in New York State.
- Um, we do have the State Preparedness Training
- Center, um, that, uh, that
- does Part 107 training. They do some hands-on flight training as
- well.
- So, um, I don't know which one they were referencing, but, um,
- you could always
- shoot, uh, shoot us an email and, um, uh, I'll, I'll get more details for you
- Perfect. Um,
- couple more questions and then we will wrap it up for today.
- But for those of you, if I don't get to your question,
- please know that we have
- your information. We'll reach out to you. You will get that answered eventually.
- Um, is Skydio integrated into the Axon Air
- Drone Sense
- platform yet?
- So we do, um... So you can do Axon response,
- so you can live
- stream, uh, through Sky- uh, through Axon.
- Um, so, uh, there is some integration there.
- It's not fully integrated with Drone Sense yet.
- So there, um, the live streaming part of it, yes.
- Do you have any agencies that use your system in conjunction with
- a crime center or a monitoring center?
- So
- in terms of, like, a real-time crime center or a-
- I, I assume that's, yeah, what it's referencing.
- Yeah. Um, off the top of my head, I can't think of one
- specifically. I mean, I, uh, we've mentioned OKC, uh, Oklahoma
- City.
- Um, certainly they've got real-time crime
- centers and, and their whole
- goal is to get the drol- drone up and, and provide that feed to the watch
- commander
- real-time crime centers. Um,
- so I, you know, yeah, I think most agencies, um,
- who are considering having a drone operation, um, also see the
- value in a real-time crime center.
- You know, they're kind of two, two,
- two... The same thing, you know, two peas in a pod.
- What you're trying to do is get intelligence on those incidents
- that are happening.
- Um, a drone is a way to get there quickly
- and see more than you otherwise would.
- See it from a, uh, you know, and share it.
- And that's, that's what real-time crime centers are,
- is gathering data,
- um, getting that data out to the front line,
- whether it's, you know, personnel
- checking fixed cameras or the D- DFR camera feed.
- Um, you know, getting alerts for ShotSpotter
- or ZeroEyes or
- Flock or some of these, um, you know, immediate notification
- systems. Um, Live 911, other, other ones that are out there.
- Um,
- you know, it's all about intel and it's...
- And a drone is just a way to access intel.
- So, uh, real-time crime centers generate out of
- agencies who want to get immediate access to intel
- and have a team that's there to actually do something with it.
- So I hope,
- hope I answered the question. There, there's a lot of real-time crime centers
- out
- there with drone teams.
- Yeah, absolutely. And I think just integrations are key,
- right?
- You're already using a lot of systems, so how do we just integrate the drones
- into
- that to make it more robust and get you as much information as quickly
- as you can
- get it?
- Um, with that said, we are down to our last minute,
- so we're gonna go ahead and
- wrap it up for today. Um, to Deepu and Fritz, thank you so
- much for all of the information that you've provided today.
- I think this was extremely helpful to those who may be looking to
- start patrol led deployment or maybe just starting in the beginning
- phases of
- adding a drone unit to their agency.
- To all of you that have attended, thank you so much.
- Um, for the questions we did not get to, again, we will get those to you
- directly. Um, you'll just have to wait for someone to
- reach out to you.
- Um, but we really appreciate you joining us
- today.
- And if you have any questions or need anything further,
- please reach out to any of
- us
Watch Time
58 Mins 40 Secs
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