In 2015, Lieutenant Jon Bowers of the Fort Wayne Police Department (FWPD) in Indiana first became interested in how drones could be of service to law enforcement agencies. At that time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had only granted approval to one police department to begin a drone trial. Lieutenant Bowers closely followed the first police drone trial in Chula Vista, CA, determined to bring a similar program to the city of Fort Wayne. As the second largest city in Indiana, with a population of around 260,000, Officer Rowland knew that drones could become one of the best devices to incorporate into the city’s commitment to 21st century policing practices.

It wasn’t until 2017 that Lieutenant Bowers was finally able to establish the FWPD Air Support Unit (ASU) with the signing of Bill PD17-2006. Today, the ASU, led by Officer Matt Rowland, is comprised of a team of 7 dedicated Part 107 police drone officers. The team spent nearly 2 years training and preparing the department to use drones to the best of their ability. Sharing resources with the Fort Wayne Fire Department, Officer Rowland explained that the drones are used in the collection of data from crime and fatal crash scenes, in SWAT and HAZMAT operations, for situational awareness, and in search and rescue missions.

According to the FWPD ASU website, the drones are equipped with several payload capabilities. This includes Pix4D programming that can create 3D maps of crime and crash scenes and a FLIR thermal imaging camera in search and rescue missions. A standard high definition camera is also key when the drone is used in situational awareness cases. Early on, the ASU found they were having one main issue with the drone program. When using the drone, hundreds of images and videos are taken. The team was having a hard time rapidly compiling the images and making them available for actionability. So, the FWPD ASU turned to Los Angeles, CA based drone data processing company, GNARBOX.

Jay Peterson, Director of Sales at GNARBOX, set the FWPD ASU up with the solutions they needed to effectively utilize the drone program. The data collected on the drone’s memory card is rapidly uploaded to the rugged GNARBOX 2.0 SSD. From there the data is instantly available of the FWPD secure cloud network to be shared with officers. There is virtually no lag time between when the drones capture the images too when the officers need to access the data. “When every decision is crucial and seconds can mean the difference between life or death,” reads a statement from the FWPD ASU, “the Fort Wayne Police Department Air Support Unit trusted GNARBOX to rapidly provide critical mission intelligence to Incident Commanders to facilitate better tactical decisions.”

With the GNARBOX supported drone program, the FWPD ASU has the tools needed to protect and serve the city of Fort Wayne. The department continues to enhance its drone program by ensuring that the members of the ASU stay current on all drone advancements. More and more law enforcement agencies across the United States are adopting similar drone programs that align with modern policing visions.