On a typical night just north of Washington, D.C., a dozen drone flights quietly take off as part of a major police trend spreading across the U.S. The agency behind them — the Montgomery County, Md., Police Department — plans to double its program over the next few months, reports the Washington Post. “They really have made a difference for us,” said County Executive Marc Elrich. "We’re happy to be expanding.” Thousands of public safety agencies are using drones in some form, according to drone industry officials. Many do so after an incident is well underway. Montgomery’s program is designed to get its drones to the scene ahead of responding ground units by launching them during the opening seconds of a 911 call. Now nine months old, the program has become a national leader among some 50 programs using drones as “first responders” that are either in development or operating.
Montgomery’s two responder drones are equipped with video cameras that can zoom in on what someone is holding in their hand and can track their movements. Drone operators can send the video feed to the ground officers’ laptops, tablets or cellphones. The department ran more than 1,000 flights this month, and says the technology has enabled it to not just catch criminals but also to determine which calls do not require a police response, so that cruiser units can be sent elsewhere and officers’ time isn’t wasted. “The name of the game is speed,” said Capt. Jason Cokinos, drone operations supervisor. The drones lift to between 300 and 400 feet, generally flying 36 mph and reaching an incident scene in about one minute. Rooftop operators always maintain control. They are assisted by GPS self-navigation tools on the devices and by officers who — sitting inside a drone room in front of giant monitors — can use joystick-type devices to steer the drones and zoom in their video cameras. For a soon-to-be-launched operation, drones will be able to fly up to three miles in any direction. The drones can fly up to 55 minutes on a single battery charge. The drones have helped locate more than 200 suspects
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