Police in Northeast Ohio plan to use ‘drones as first responders’ to help with emergency calls

AKRON, Ohio (WOIO) – High tech police drones are responding quickly to emergencies, offering a bird’s-eye view from the skies. And their use by local police departments is taking off.

Police in northeast Ohio believe using ‘drones as first responders’ will make the community safer and protect their officers too.

19 Investigates got a rare look behind the scenes to show you how it works and how drones can be deployed without an officer on scene.

Skydio, headquartered in California, makes these drones.

They brought a “demo dock” to Akron police to show us how dock-based drones work and allow drones to respond immediately to calls.

“It’s all about safety. We’re all about making the officers more safe, making the community more safe. And that’s really the end goal here,” said Noreen Charlton.

Charlton leads public safety strategy for Skydio.

She said police officers don’t have to be expert drone pilots to operate them.

That’s why they built a drone that is easy to fly.

“So the Skydio drones are constantly building the environment around themselves so that they know where they are flying and you can confidently fly without having to worry about crashing,” Charlton said.

Drones as first responders

Charlton believes “drones as first responders” is changing policing.

Officers responding to emergencies don’t have to fly a drone on their own anymore if their agency uses a dock-based system that houses and launches the drones from locations across a city.

Instead, they can rely on other officers who remotely control the drones from a command center set up at police headquarters or another location.

Police departments in cities across the country are installing these docks, which pair with the drones Skydio manufactures.

“We’re getting the drone in the air and overhead in less than two minutes, which means that the responding officers can watch this live stream from the drone while they are en route to the call,” Charlton said.

Charlton said that ability is providing officers better situational awareness when they arrive on scene.

“They can slow down, they can make better tactical decisions, and this is leading to the ability to de-escalate situations and reducing potential use of force,” she said.

She said faster response times using drones are even capturing crime in progress.

“We’re getting video evidence of that, which is leading to faster case resolution and holding people accountable for the crimes that they’re committing in these communities,” Charlton said.

There are also smaller drones for flying inside.

Skydio said these drones gives officers eyes inside before they enter a building.

Drone docks in action

We watched a demonstration of how the drone docks work from the top of the roof of the Akron police headquarters, a high-rise building towering over South High Street.

This was a ‘demo dock’ set up temporarily by SkyDio.

A drone sat inside of the dock while the police drone pilots operated it from a command center several floors below.

The dock started beeping and opened and the drone readied for takeoff, its blades spinning.

After a simple command, it lifted up into the sky over the city and traveled to wherever police needed it to go.

“With the click of a button, the drone is flying there on its own. The officer can take over at any point,” Charlton said. “There is always an operator or a pilot in a chair somewhere, a dispatch center or a real-time crime center that is controlling the drone.”

Drones can come back to the dock when they need to charge. Another drone can be sent out in the meantime if a call comes in.

Law enforcement agencies can place docks like this where they get the most calls for service.

The drones have red and blue lights so it’s clear they are operated by law enforcement, Charlton said. They also have speakers to talk to people.

They can fly in extreme heat and cold and handle windy conditions.

Akron police advancing drone program

Akron police have seven drones with 20 pilots right now and four more drones on the way.

The drones have been used to chase suspects, help with search and rescue missions and missing children investigations.

Lt. Michael Murphy with Akron police said drones have been a game changer.

They believe it will reduce violent crime in the city and keep officers safe too.

“It makes this job much safer for our officers because it gives us the ability to view things without having to put the officers in danger, in harm’s way,” Murphy said.

Akron police are not operating the drones with docks yet.

They said they hope to rollout at least three docks in the city this year for their next steps in their “Drones as First Responders” (DFR) program.

They said they already have all of the required FAA waivers and are looking into grants to help pay for them.

Akron police said the drones cost about $15-16,000.

Ohio agencies using Skydio drones

Six law enforcement agencies in Ohio use Skydio drones including Cleveland police.

Cleveland police said they have nine Skydio drones and seven pilots with their FAA certification and they’re considering getting the docks in the future.

Cincinnati police is the only agency in Ohio using dock-based drones right now, according to Skydio.

The company serves more than 800 public safety agencies across the country.

Privacy concerns addressed

Some citizens and experts have concerns about police drones, from privacy to surveillance.

The American Civil Liberties Union recognizes “drones have many beneficial uses” for police but recommends proper regulation and safeguards. The organization suggests limiting drone usage to incidents involving warrants, emergencies or specific crime evidence collection.

And when it comes to data retention, the ACLU recommends agencies only save images that may contain evidence of a crime or are relevant to an ongoing investigation or trial.

We asked SkyDio about these privacy concerns.

“Most agencies are developing policies around their DFR program being specifically for response to calls for service,” Noreen Charlton said. “So the community members calling in something to 911 and then using the drone for that and being very explicit about not using them for surveillance,” she said.

Many police agencies using drones maintain transparency dashboards showing flight information to the public. Cleveland police operates a transparency dashboard you can see here.

Akron Police do not have a dashboard, but they said they have plans for one in the near future.

Need an investigation? Contact 19 Investigates with your request.

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