Drones have provided emergency and utility agencies with faster and more efficient responses in Fort Collins through the new Drone as a City Resource program. This new program is made up of three drones that can reach almost anywhere in the city in about 90 seconds, Fort Collins Police Services Chief Jeff Swoboda said.
Using drones as a tool for emergency responses already exists across the country through what is known as the Drone as First Responder program. However, the DFR program is limited to hand-held drones that require a licensed officer to operate on-scene with a battery pack.
"The biggest issue that we ran into was response time," Sgt. Ryan Barash said. "We were 10-to-15 minutes behind where we needed to be sometimes; (whereas) now, it's (the) drone that gets there well before us."
The drones are controlled and get launched by either a 911 dispatcher or trained emergency personnel. From there, the drones can reach the scene before first responders.
"DCRs are autonomous, so they just get launched from a computer on their own," Barash said. "And then, once they get on scene, the pilot can manipulate them and zoom in or fly it around."
Launched in February of this year, the DCR program is one of the first shared drone programs in the U.S. and is utilized by the Fort Collins Police Services, City of Fort Collins Utilities and Poudre Fire Authority.
Swoboda said police are now able to understand the gravity of a call before their arrival, allowing them to better prepare for what emergency resources are needed.
"Where we stand with the three drones, we get there, and we are really able to alter our response," Swoboda said. "I think that's going to save money and resources in many different ways that we don't even know yet."
Kevin Fields is the captain of PFA Station 5, one of two fire stations that house the drones. He said the program helps his team gauge how large of a response is needed for a fire emergency.
"So PD is able to cancel out a lot of calls," Fields said. "For us, typically, we are still responding, but it allows us to right-size the response. We have that additional information to make our decisions based off of it."
Fields gave a hypothetical yet common example of a situation in which a community member calls in a house fire. Within about 90 seconds, the DCR can determine the severity, which can help conserve emergency vehicles and responders.
"We're going to be sending four engines, two trucks, a battalion chief and an ambulance, ... and then if we determine that it's just grass on fire, usually that's just a single engine response." Fields said.
Additionally, the drones help police and fire services reach a scene faster through navigating traffic conditions and helping emergency vehicles choose the fastest route.
"They can also tell, "Hey, you know what, traffic on this street is really backed up because of this crash; you're not going to be able to get through there,"" Swoboda said. "So officers can kind of alter their route."
Fort Collins Utilities also uses the DCR program to help keep the community safer in less time.
Barash said that about a month and a half ago, there was a water main break in town. Before DCR, at least one fire engine and officer would have arrived at the scene to investigate, leading them to call utilities.
"Now what we can do is just send a drone over there, not send fire, not send police, and we can figure out exactly where the water main break is," Barash said. "Then we can send the video to utilities and say, "Hey, this is what it looks like; this is where it's at.""
After over 1,600 deployments of the three Skydio X10 drones, the future is bright for the DCR program, according to Swoboda and Barash. Both see an overall expansion of the program in the coming years.
"Something that they are coming out with here, in a couple of months, is a dropper system that attaches to the bottom of the drone that can carry 1.2 pounds," Barash said. "And that enables us to attach Narcan, medical supplies; they have (an automated external defibrillator) that you can attach to it, all that kind of stuff."
Since the drones fly over residential areas, they are held to strict policies to protect the constitutional and privacy rights of the community, as well as to comply with Federal Aviation Administration drone regulations.
A transparency page and FAQ page for public access is currently in the works, FCPS Director of Communications J Gilmore said.
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