The Dallas Police Department has officially launched its new Drone as First Responder program, deploying eight remotely operated drones across the city to assist police and fire crews responding to emergencies.
The drones are stationed at Dallas Fire-Rescue facilities and are operated through the department’s Fusion/Real Time Crime Center. Officials said each drone can respond to calls within a 2-mile radius of its assigned base station.
A video posted to YouTube gives viewers a close-up view of the new drone system.
Police said the drone locations were selected using heat maps showing areas with high volumes of police and fire calls to maximize coverage and improve response times.
The program is designed to enable drone pilots to virtually arrive at scenes faster than officers traveling in patrol vehicles, providing live aerial intelligence to responding crews. Officials said the technology could also help reduce unnecessary responses or clear calls if incidents are resolved before officers arrive.
If pilots identify situations where aerial surveillance could improve officer safety, they can deploy drones to provide updates to personnel on the ground.
Each drone is equipped with a thermal camera for nighttime operations and a loudspeaker for communicating with people at scenes.
“I challenged our team to find innovative ways to continue improving our response times, and 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 in a news release.
Comeaux said early training exercises demonstrated the program’s potential.
“Even during our training, our pilots were able to clear three holding calls in an hour with one drone,” he said. “That alone proved their value to us, and I’m looking forward to seeing the benefits in both officer safety and response times.”
Dallas Fire-Rescue officials said firefighters will also use the drones during emergency incidents, including structure fires.
Under the new system, a drone can be dispatched ahead of fire apparatus to provide commanders with an aerial view of a fire’s size and intensity before crews arrive.
“Dallas Fire-Rescue is proud to collaborate with DPD on any initiative that will make our city safer,” said Justin Ball. “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.”
Officials described the partnership between police and fire departments as part of a broader effort to expand smart-city technology to improve public safety and protect first responders.
