Crime & Safety

Fort Worth Police Launch Drone First Responder Program

The technology-driven initiative is designed to enhance emergency response times.

The Fort Worth Police Department is announcing the launch of its new Drone as First Responder program.

The city included details about the program in a Tuesday blog post. According to the post, the technology-driven initiative is designed to enhance emergency response times and provide real-time situational awareness for first responders.

The program will deploy remotely piloted drones from docking stations and respond to emergencies to provide responding personnel with additional information from the piloted drone.

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"This is designed to support faster decision-making, improve situational awareness, and enhance response coordination," the post states.

According to the post, the program depends on Flock Safety's drone as first responder technology. Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia and Flock Safety representatives discussed how the program will hopefully strengthen the department's operations and the role emergency technology plays in modern emergency response.

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After the launch, the department demonstrated a live drone deployment, automated dock launch, and landing as well as real-time footage display from the drone.

The United States Department of Homeland Security calls drones a "critical tool for providing real-time situational awareness in public safety operations."

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