Twenty-two law enforcement agencies nationwide have obtained waivers from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations (BVLOS) in their local jurisdictions.  BVLOS operations allow departments to dispense with remote piloting and visual observation of their drone flights and to respond to police emergencies and other public disturbances over longer distances beyond the site of the initial drone launch.  With BVLOS, police need fewer drones in fewer locations to conduct their operations; and their ability to deter crime and respond to crime scenes expeditiously is greatly enhanced.

The Chula Vista Police Department (CVPD) was the first law enforcement agency in the country to receive a BVLOS back in 2020.  Currently, the CVPD has 29 drones at its disposal for a wide range of operations, from search-and-rescue to crime and accident scene analysis.  The department also uses drones to backstop SWAT team operations and to assist other public safety agencies to respond to fires and humanitarian disasters.  Some of its past operations, including overflights of public demonstrations, have caused controversy, prompting a civil lawsuit from protesters who claim the department violated their First Amendment rights.  The matter has yet to be resolved but it’s already prompted important and positive reforms in police department drone operations nationwide.

Other PDs in southern California – as well in northern Mexico, in fact – have gone to school on some of the CVPD’s important innovations, most notably its embrace of the Drone First Responder (DFR) program developed by the firm Flying Lion.  The DFR program automatically dispatches drones to the site of police emergencies in response to a 911 call.   In the program’s initial incarnation, a dispatcher would take the 911 call, identify the location of the caller (using GPS), push a button, and a pre-positioned drone would launch from the roof of police headquarters and speed to the scene within minutes.  A police spotter equipped with binoculars would track the drone’s progress and a separate technician would monitor the flight by computer.

Participants in the DFR program, which include police departments in Beverly Hills, Redondo Beach and Laguna Beach swear by it; they say it provides the “situational intelligence” officers need to quickly size up potential crime scenes and to adapt their tactics to avoid unnecessary violence.  The program saves the lives of officers and suspects alike and also allows their departments to avoid wasting field resources that could be better deployed elsewhere.

How well the DFR program reduces crime is a matter of some dispute – hard statistics are lacking but anecdotal evidence is strong.  The program does allow departments to close their 911 calls far more quickly – often in as little as 90 seconds.  The rapid response capability is also intimidating to would-be criminals who know that detection of their crimes and the police follow up is likely to be immediate, limiting their chances of escape.  Drones on the scene can initiate a rapid pursuit of fleeing suspects and equipped with thermal imaging cameras can even track and find them at night, directing field officers and K-9 teams to their location and subsequent arrest, usually within 24 hours.

The latest innovation in the DFR program hasn’t come in Chula Vista but in Pearland, Texas, which is also the latest local police department in the country to obtain a BVLOS waiver.  The Pearland PD requested the waiver after partnering with Iris Automation, which has pioneered the development of state-of-the-art ground sensor technology that can detect possible intrusions into drone airspace and electronically redirect the drone or the intruding aircraft to make collisions between the two far less likely.  The addition of the “Casia G” technology fulfills the requirement of the FAA that drone operators requesting a BVLOS waiver employ some kind of “sense and avoid” technology to reduce the possibility of drone collisions with people or objects.  Normally that technology is added to an aircraft, which increases its cost and weight and limits its flight efficiency and time airborne.  With sensors installed on the ground rather than onboard, drones flying BVLOS can accommodate a heavier payload (including more high-powered drone cameras) and can make their limited battery power last longer, allowing for  extended flights.

The FAA is under growing pressure from the US Congress and the drone industry to move beyond the current ad hoc waiver system to allow for more unrestricted BVLOS operations without the need for extensive prior approval from the agency on a case-by-case basis.  In the short term, the Pearland PD’s precedent is likely to lead to a major acceleration of BVLOS waivers for law enforcement agencies as well as an expansion of the DFR program beyond the relative handful of police departments – mostly in southern California – that have implemented it to date.  The demand for more speed and flexibility in responding to police emergencies is simply too great for programs like DFR to be ignored.  And the program has already proven its value in the field as a means of cutting costs, saving lives, and more effectively fighting crime.

At a national technology conference last March, Mark Katz, the CEO of Flying Lion, the firm which initiated the DFR program with the CVPD in 2020 predicted:  “2023 will be the year of DFR.”  Look for exponential growth in DFR programs and BVLOS requests, starting in Texas, where several dozen law enforcement agencies already deploy drones but with pending budget and personnel cutbacks, are looking for new, more efficient ways to deploy them.  DFR, enhanced with BVLOS, could be the answer.