Dallas, Texas is just one of the many cities in the US that is facing a staffing crisis, a shortage that is greatly affecting emergency services. Dallas City Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn apologized for delayed 911 response times as the department struggles to find dispatchers. She said that the city had begun offering bonuses and pulling officers off the streets to take calls. The Dallas Police Department (DPD) has 3,640 sworn officers and 556 civilians that serve 1.3 million citizens over 340 square miles.

On January 20, 2022, the DPD officially announced its latest addition to modern policing, one that will also alleviate some staffing concerns, drones. While DPD aggressively looks to increase staff, having a fleet of drones could help to pick up some of the slack, and so much more. Maj. Mark Villarreal and Sgt. Ross Stinson held a press conference about the new Unmanned Aircraft Systems Unit that will be a part of the already existing Air Support Unit. At the conference they explained that the drones would only be used in 15 specifically designated operations. Maj. Villarreal said these would include “Disaster response, missing persons, fugitive apprehension, building searches, investigating dangerous and armed subjects.” At no time would the drones ever be used in surveillance, but rather in an observational capacity based on information received from officers on the scene or 911 calls that necessitate drone backup.

The department has purchased 3 drones and trained 3 officers per FAA regulations to pilot the drones. Sgt. Stinson showed off the 3 drones, a Mavic Mini for indoor tactile response, a Mavic Advanced with infrared cameras for combined indoor and outdoor use, and the solely outdoor operational Matrice 300 that will serve as the department’s heavy duty drone. Sgt. Stinson went on to say that the Matrice 300 has the widest range of capabilities with an infrared, wide, and zoom camera, and a payload delivery system. “It is a bracket that attaches to the bottom of it with a drop mechanism,” Sgt. Stinson explained, “and we could take a life vest to somebody. Food, water, it can be used to provide life saving equipment during critical incidences.”

Though the PDP only announced the drone program to the public recently, they have had it in place for some time now. In September, DPD had the opportunity to test out the drone program in response to an explosion in a Southern Dallas apartment building. “We were able to assist DFD (Dallas Fire Department) in flying the interior to assess the situation to see if there were any further individuals that need to be rescued and also assess the situation to see if firefighters need to go in or not,” Sgt. Stinson said. He went on to tell the press that DPD had been researching a drone program since 2015, but had to make sure that any new technology was introduced with the utmost care. “We wanted to make sure we implemented in the correct way and technology has made huge leaps in the past couple of years,” Sgt. Stinson said. “We finally felt like it was finally time to deploy it and we could do so in a very safe and thorough manner. Now is the time.”