Scottsdale Police to use high-tech drones as first-responders

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (AZFamily)— The Scottsdale Police Department recently announced a new technology for using drones as first responders.

“The chief wants to make it very, very hard to commit crime and get away with it, and this layering of technology does that,” said Scottsdale Police Assistant Chief Rich Slavin.

Known as Drone as First Responder or DFR, this will be the first of its kind here in Arizona.

Instead of an officer needing to be on-scene to operate the drone, Real Time Crime Center crews can operate it remotely, feeding back information to officers before going to the call.

“It’s mounted on top of a building and that drone can be flown with proper waivers from the FAA from a pilot,” Slavin said.

The drone’s first site will be atop the Scottsdale Center of Performing Arts in Old Town.

Slavin said because nearly 50% of calls for service are within the area, this will be a good location to test this new technology.

Once the drone is launched, officials say that it can go as far as three miles in under 85 seconds.

“There’s a reality to this idea that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. So, by the time we get on the scene, we have to figure out what’s going on as opposed to I can get a drone overhead. I can give real-time information to the officers responding so they respond to the right place in the most timely fashion and understand the call before getting there and figuring it out,” said Scottsdale Police Chief Jeff Walther.

Slavin addressed the privacy concerns and said that once the drone is deployed, its camera will not face down until it gets to the scene.

All pilots are required to fill out a flight log, which records and makes available to the public all information about when a flight took place.

The drone costs $308,000 in total. Scottsdale Police is still conducting test runs, but they plan to launch the first drone within the next five to ten days.

The hope is that this new technology will help cut response times and keep our officers safe when responding to a call.

“We know time and time again that drones are beneficial to patrol. Keeping them safe in tactical environments but also to the community,” Slavin said.

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