DALLAS — Dallas Police Department officially launched its new Drone as First Responder program Wednesday, deploying eight remotely piloted drones across the city to assist police and fire crews with emergency calls.
The drones are stationed at Dallas Fire-Rescue facilities and are operated through the department’s Fusion/Real Time Crime Center.
According to Dallas police, each drone is designed to respond to calls within a two-mile radius of its assigned fire station. Officials said the locations were selected using heat maps analyzing both police and fire calls for service to maximize coverage in high-demand areas.
The drones allow operators to reach scenes faster than patrol vehicles and provide real-time aerial intelligence to officers and firefighters before they arrive.
Police officials said the program is expected to:
- Improve response times
- Increase officer safety
- Provide live situational awareness
- Reduce unnecessary police responses
- Potentially clear calls before officers arrive if situations are resolved
If a pilot identifies a call where aerial intelligence could improve officer safety, a drone can immediately be dispatched to provide live updates to responding officers.
Each drone is equipped with:
- Thermal imaging cameras for nighttime operations
- Loudspeakers to communicate with people on the ground
Daniel Comeaux said the department developed the program as part of an effort to improve response efficiency and free officers to handle more calls.
“I challenged our team to find innovative ways to continue improving our response times, and this new drone unit will not only keep officers free to respond to more calls, but provide real time updates as they are responding to calls,” Comeaux said.
The chief said the program already demonstrated value during training exercises.
“Even during our training, our pilots were able to clear three holding calls in an hour with one drone,” Comeaux said. “That alone proved their value to us.”
Dallas Fire-Rescue officials said firefighters will also use the drones during emergency incidents, particularly structure fires.
Under the program, drones can be sent ahead of fire apparatus to provide incident commanders with an aerial view of the fire before crews arrive on scene.
Justin Ball said the technology will improve operational awareness and firefighter safety.
“Dallas Fire-Rescue is proud to collaborate with DPD on any initiative that will make our city safer,” Ball said. “By strategically docking the drones at our fire stations in high-demand areas, we are optimizing our response times and ensuring our tactics are more precise, while adding an extra layer of protection for the city.”
City officials described the initiative as a major advancement in the use of smart-city technology for public safety operations.
