# Rapid Public Safety Operations with Docked Drones as First Responders

- Event: NestGen ’25
- Published: March 7, 2025
- Length: 45:04
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/-OYEfh3glRQ/

> The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's
> captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms.

## Transcript

**[0:20]** hi everyone my name is Kyle nforce and welcome to the panel discussion of Rapid Public Safety operations with Doc drones as a first responder my normal job I am one of those few that are on this panel that is not a commissioned or sworn sworn officer my normal job I'm a captain on a 737 for a legacy carrier here in the United States however I do get a volunteer quite frequently with our search and rescue team and I am the uas uh flight operations manager for our uas operations in addition to that the Mountain Rescue Association asked me to head up the chair for all uas missions for the Mountain Rescue Association and we have 90 teams here in North America however let me introduce you to our star studded panel here and uh we're going to start off with uh Chief of Police from Redmond uh uh Washington Chief uh low will you please go ahead and introduce yourself greetings Kyle and everyone on the uh panel my name is Daryl low

**[1:24]** I'm the chief of police in Redan Washington which is a suburb of Seattle and I'm happy to be with you today fantastic thank you Chief and then we're also privileged to have Captain Moore from Asheville PD hey welcome everybody my name is Brandon Moore I'm a captain with the ashva police department I run the Patrol Division and I'm also the Drone unit Commander thank you Captain uh we also have uh Jason day who is the director of uas or unman operations for the Texas Department of Public Safety hey happy Tuesday everybody uh yeah um I'm Jason day as director of of unmanned aircraft for Texas DPS I'm basically responsible for the administration the coordination the oversight of our uas program and Texas DPS has the the largest public safety uas program in the United States right now so happy to be here yeah it's actually a privilege to have Jason here with us with the the diversity of their Fleet and we're going to be

**[2:24]** relying on him and his expertise quite a bit during this panel and then also we have Joshua PU who probably has the longest title of all of us here uh he is the director of Partnerships and strategic initiatives Josh yeah thanks a lot Kyle I am the other uh non sworn non Leo on the uh on the call today again my name is Joshua prud I'm the director uh here at a loft I've been in the public safety uas space uh for a little over a decade staunch advocate for the end user just really excited for this discussion today thank you Josh and you bringing unique perspective that the rest of us don't have on this panel so we're going to be picking your brain quite a bit as well so for those that don't understand the whole premise of drone as a First Responders it's gone through some uh reformations throughout the years and uh there's what we call dfr 1.0 and dfr 2.0 dfr 1.0 is kind of like what we would often refer to in the industry as the TR La Vista model where we are

**[3:29]** operating or launching drones from the top of buildings and we have a pilot and command a pic on top of that building that is still watching the Drone and making sure that we see in a void and that the Drone isn't entering an airspace or getting close to other manned aircraft dfr 2.0 is kind of where the industry is uh going to and we have a couple individuals on this panel with their 2.0 uh dfr program where you no longer need to have that person up on top of the roof or that visual Observer that allows you to um uh so you can launch remotely and virtually you can launch these drones out of their docks or from their nest from virtually anywhere in the world and so on that note Chief low let's turn to you first can you please describe your program in Redmond Washington and more specifically the manner in which it is transformed your operations from a chief of police perspective yeah thank you Calle

**[4:29]** so currently we're operating uh two different um uh platforms for our dfr program we are currently operating uh from uh three different docks it it's allowed us to get a visual perspective on call or service in uh less than two minutes uh it's allowed us to reduce our ground response by 25% of the time which then frees up officers uh for other calls uh as you said we are at that 2.0 plus uh stage uh and really trying to uh push and enhance uh the dfr uh space uh for the enduser uh you know as Josh mentioned there's a number of uh platforms and things out there but at the end of the day it's about being uh as effective and efficient as possible to provide safety for the community and to provide a a smooth uh reliable platform uh for our pilots on that note Chief um you you live in a part of the country that is very um Pro their own privacy

**[5:30]** and and the like can you please tell us what the public reception has been of your dfr program up up there in the Northwestern part of the United States uh very skeptical at first it took um uh a number of uh Community meetings number of Council meetings and and then ultimately um understanding the the concerns that the community uh has uh for their privacy and then also operationally um making the camera uh at the horizon Ron while uh responding two calls and returning back to the nest so the only time that the camera is actually looking at the ground or you know at the people is when uh we get uh within about uh 50 yards of the actual call uh and that was uh sufficient for both my elected officials and for my community to understand what the purpose uh of the dfr program uh was for uh unlike some other agencies we are not currently flying uh proactively uh we respond uh to specific uh calls for service uh I think that's the other thing that right now is a bit

**[6:33]** different uh we may get to a point where we do uh more routine uh you know patrols with drones I know there are a number of agencies that that do that uh we are not currently in that space yet yeah the reactive pre police work I think goes a long way with with the public sentiment and their appearance of it I I know that there have been other agencies that have worked hand inand with the ACLU and ensuring that all the safety uh concerns are taken care of and it does seem I think by and large when it comes to drones use in public safety just like the root of most fear it's the lack of education and and like you said it takes a lot of time to to talk to the politicians to talk to the uh your uh the people that you're serving to get the Buy in on that but with that lack of Education I think there's a lot of uh confusion and misunderstood Concepts in the dfr space so through it I'm I'm turning to you on this one um so what is the most important aspect of selecting a platform for your

**[7:38]** specific dfr needs yeah for me and again coming from an end user perspective having advocated for the end user for the past 10 years due diligence due diligence and intense scrutiny of the platforms that are out there this space along with real-time crime centers remote operation centers whatever you want to call them whatever acronym you want to use news these are the buzzwords in public safety right now and there's a lot of eyes that have turned uh into this space and given it a lot of attention uh but for agencies you know this is for many a fundamental change to their patrol operations to their dat to-day operations uh some departments even you know considering this as a you know Patrol Le dfr or a dfr Le Patrol depending on how you want to look at it um I think it's important more than ever to talk to end user subject matter experts talk to the programs that have gone through the selection process have looked at all of the different platforms out there from some

**[8:41]** of the ogs to some of the new school players and really just rely on the professionals that you've put in place within your organization to help guide your decision uh unfortunately there is a lot of smok and mirrors put into play in this space and I think it's just incredibly important to see these Platforms in action go visit the Asheville's the Redmond the Chula Vistas the perins the folks that have really paved the way and have put the work in see what they're doing see how their operations are running you know see if that's something you want to mimic or if it's something you want to take to the next level uh but for me that level of due diligence that intense scrutiny of these platforms is the only way that you're going to make an informed decision because again this is a long-term fundamental change to your leasing operations so that's that's kind of my perspective there Kyle you know you you hit on so many different things there that I I wish we had the time to expand on because there is a lot of misinformation out there and what works well for

**[9:43]** one group or one agency is not necessarily going to be best and ideal for another for another group and I want to uh highlight what you said to go visit these agencies that already have their dfr programs put together um I've been down to Chula Vista I've been to perin um I I I'm my airline that I work for is based at a Seattle I've already talked to Chief low and he he welcomed me with open arms saying yes please come up um and we're going to talk a lot of Aviation I'm sure when I when I am able to get to Chief Low's uh agency um and I've also heard the same thing about Captain Moore but it it's imperative to go out there and see what else is available or what other programs are what other programs are doing and try to mirror or come up with a solution that's best to your unique situation now I think the concept of dfr is one that is tried and true something that um has been proven time and time again now um uh Captain Moore you more than anybody else on this

**[10:47]** panel and I would dare say anybody else in the country maybe the world has had to use your dfr program in such a way that was inst mental and saving lives and also the uh well just in the aftermath of the Hurricanes that you had come ripping through North Carolina can you please expand on your experience and maybe some lessons learned of how dfr helped you to save lives pre uh preserve property and how instrumental it was during the uh hurricane recovery yeah no I I will definitely hit on some of those pieces we won't have enough time to talk talk about all the ways in which we were very blessed and thankful to have had this in place we didn't obviously know how beneficial this would be or the ways in which we would implement it and chief Lo and and Josh hit on it with the agencies and what set forth but you know we run and had a doc system in

**[11:48]** place we run both one and two as you described it Kyle uh benefits of both are there I think specifically to this panel everybody would agree not one program is going to fit every jurisdiction and I think if you hear of these various platforms or companies out there telling you that dfr is for everybody and this is the way it has to be um I would run from that group because it's not I think it's it's very specific uh data driven I think the chief would jump right in on that you know we looked at that from the beginning and our chief was super supportive of you know look at the data and see what we can do but 62% of calls for service happened for us in a three mile area that's within my my downtown Zone that was kind of a no-brainer to be able to get to those calls as the chief described and sometimes under a minute that gives us that leg up and so when that then transferred into a storm response you talk about Manning and the reduction in Manning from a very basic perspective we're able to do that by putting these docks in place and flying drones in these

**[12:49]** areas but then when you talk about having a reduction in Staffing the city of Asheville prior to the storm we were fighting over 40% reduction in Staffing so as everyone across the country dealt with that and we all talked about how dfr can change that you still have to staff dfr and so we looked at what that would have to to end up providing Us in the way of where do we put it and then when the storm hit we we saw that exponentially increase and so luckily we had a platform in place and a company that assisted us and flying remotely uh over three days in assisting and so I reduced obviously what we all know from those two individuals to one uh and then with the waivers that we've now gotten in place we've changed that but the work still continues now even though we're not in this direct rescue effort but having docs in specific locations and I really would take up all of the panel's time to talk about all the mistakes that we made uh but we will be sharing those because we hope nobody has to fall into those um God forbid the next disaster hits but it's

**[13:52]** going to and we want to be ready and prepared to kind of give a Playbook that we didn't have of how do we best utilize this working with Partners uh when we didn't really know what it is we could or couldn't do but having you know docks drones available to provide OverWatch to provide Safety and Security for FEMA teams that are in the water specific to our problem as well as now mapping missions and additional work that's being done with all the data collected and the data moving forward you know we we had three docks uh and over 14 platforms within the city and thought we had a pretty proficient program uh now we have 12 set up in and throughout the city uh and have only seen exponentially the increase not only for regular calls for service that we can attend to but the additional work we're still doing in the recovery effort After the Storm I think you're absolutely right we could spend uh a few different sessions just going over uh the pros and cons Lessons Learned and it's not nothing specific

**[14:52]** to Ashville but just anybody that survives and goes through what it is that you all went through and saw and had to manage and organize I'm sure we could all benefit from hearing from your Lessons Learned and what you might do differently but uh when you do have a natural disaster like that and you are fortunate enough to have your system already set up like you did with with the docs um it's imperative that you able to integrate those uh those other agencies that are coming into you so this is where I'm going to turn to Jason day and his expertise a little bit more because Jason day does manage the country's largest Fleet of drones and Public Safety and not only does he have uh quadcopters but you have a range of different types of uh of aircraft types and makes so how is it that from a managerial perspective do you keep everything situated and deploy the right asset for the right

**[15:58]** job Ken that's really challenging and that's a good question Kyle um you know it really kind of starts with training and making sure all of our operators are well-versed in all the different kind of technologies that we have and and what's available to them what's kind of unique about DPS is we are multi-divisional so we have six different divisions that operate uas I work for aircraft operations we're kind of umbrella over the program but each one of the divisions has different Mission sets so that means they have different aircraft and somebody like Highway Patrol that their primary mission is crash scene reconstruction um the air frames that they have is going to be very different than the Texas Rangers who are doing higher altitude border operations or criminal investigation type of work and then you have our criminal investigations division which is kind of doing everything in between right they'll do a lot of indoor stuff they'll do investigative work so you'll have Highway Patrol where they will have a

**[17:02]** divisional office and they will have a locker with all of their drones and they share those it's a very different model for criminal investigations who each one of our special agents will have you know they have an indoor drone they'll have a small like a mic size drone and maybe they'll have a m30 or an m300 so it's really challenging figuring out how to distribute all those assets make sure they're in the right place but people are well trained on on all the different um air frames that we have so that if they get called to assist they're able to use that not just whatever their daily driver is you know being able to integrate everything uh is is such an important aspect and there are a lot of different you know we're not we're not trying to promote one software or brand of drone that might be better or more suited for one agency over another because every agency like uh PR was saying is so unique but uh so Josh can you I'm sorry Jason can you please talk to us about some

**[18:05]** of those softwares just as as an idea that you use to help integrate everything because if you use the noem uh platform that is only specific to that one make or model of aircraft then that means that's pretty much isolated right so how how do you what kind of softwares do you use to be able to integrate everything yeah that that's super important and again a great question um early on we had to identify that problem and realize that from both from an operational perspective from a training perspective and from a management perspective we had to have one system of record for all of our airframes um we are a user of the axon air powered by drone sense platform we're we're probably the the largest user of that platform and having a Fleet Management System for 400 craft and 400 Pilots has been incredibly important because it not only allows us to track all of those assets whether it be a blue uas

**[19:08]** or a DJI or an altel or or whatever um but allows us to track all the maintenance and all the safety and all the training and every aspect that goes into having a program right this is something we talk to a lot of agencies about there's a huge difference between having a drone and having a drone program uh and a drone program means you have you have all the components to do this safely and efficiently and the the software component is probably the biggest part because everybody needs something different me as the as the administrator I need to be able to manage everything see all the flight time see all the maintenance see everybody's proficiency and their 107s and all of those things but your guys out in the field they care about the the operational the Tactical aspects of this right so they're car they're more worried about what is the flight platform that there there actually is on the controller and how are we they streaming that and making sure that's working then you have your Command Staff who they just care about you know the

**[20:11]** operational Hub experience where they can see all the drones in real time collaborate with other agencies so you really have to look at something that can Encompass the entire uh picture not just hey I'm gonna go out and fly a drone yeah thank you it's so Dynamic it's so much different than just having like when when drones were first introduced into public safety just having this toy and tossing it up and seeing what it can do it's having an actual program and managing it efficiently and effectively such that you're able to make a difference for the people that were charged to take care of is Quite a feat and you do need to have that software you do need to have that backing in order to make it all happen so in in the world of search and rescue so my little Niche when it comes into um uh drones I'm you know just like the rest of you I I don't make a dime in this industry I'm always just about give me the best equipment to be able to uh that allows me to go

**[21:12]** out and save as many lives as possible and I know you all have that very same uh attitude when it comes to this um and as I'm looking towards the future when it comes to dfr and just using drones and Public Safety in general you know I can't wait for the day when um whether it be star link or whomever is able to get that satellite connectivity down to like a credit credit card size right now you know using the starlink mini is um or having that satellite connectivity is just so game-changing for us in Mountain Rescue but Chief low where do you see the future of dfr so you in Redmond in your city um what is it that you see coming down the line that is going to make your operations more efficient going forward or what what is the direction in which you like to see dfr go I think as has been pointed out with with the number of players coming into this space understanding that it is not a one-size uh fits-all proposition that there be

**[22:18]** uh I'll say cander and transparency um you know from those you know venders and manufacturers that they do right by you know by the customer by the community and don't sell them or oversell them a platform that um is either too complicated or too large but then the other part of it is understanding that um as Brandon said not every agency is going to be able to stand up a dfr program so we need to start looking at the regionalization aspect of it so that agencies uh you know such as mine uh such as in North Carolina that we can provide this you know uh as a service or as a mutual Aid to some of our uh smaller you know agencies or agencies that don't have the ability to get on board with it because as we've all seen you know this is a game changer this is the future of law enforcement um but to Joshua's point we just have to get this right because uh there are a number of players coming in there there are a lot of promises being made um you know as a agency head um you

**[23:19]** know I I've seen a number of different pitches and different things and while you're always respectful uh to Brandon's point on some of them I like yeah thank you but no because I I I you know I know as I say I know enough to be dangerous but I also know the right questions to ask so that's where I really see the future at it is is regionalization um and understanding that not every agency is going going to necessarily be able to start their own program but all communities can benefit uh from this new technology I totally agree and that that is actually something that Jason has actually hit on in the past and other conversations that he's had where drone as a service right so you you have other people plug in and use your asset um so along those lines Joshua back to you um what is it that your company and other companies like yours that are doing to provide that uh UTM or airspace deconfliction because we talk a lot about dfr and our most of our focus is on the box in the aircraft inside but uh you know the five of us know and and so many other people do

**[24:20]** uh realize that have tried to set up this program it's a lot more than that you have to have deconfliction mitigation uh systems in place so Josh you being in that space what can you talk to us about that yeah so just really quick before before I jump into that I just want to go back to something that Captain Moore said um you know they have 12 sites in the city of Ashville one of the biggest issues we're seeing from a lot of platforms coming into the space is these overinflated costs I implore anyone that's on the panel anyone that's listening today reach out to the city of Asheville because 12 docs is no small undertaking 12 platforms is is massive and that should help you get your budget a little more in line and compare some of those numbers you might have gotten from some um some uh providers out there but again like uh to go back to what Kyle said there's a lot of different solutions out there

**[25:20]** some are TurnKey some are Hardware based some are software based uh we have some third-party services that's you kind of bridging that public to private Gap where we fit in where aoft Technologies fit in we try to be an airspace management tool because a dock in a drone is really only one piece of this dfr 2.0 puzzle we have to have some sort of detection arm for not only unmanned but also Mann Aviation so whether that's if you're lucky enough to live under the mode seil you're just going to need adsb but for some of the others we're talking adsb we're talking radar we're talking some uh visual sensors now there's remote ID coming in RF identifiers there's a lot of ways to accomplish the same goal uh and it's just going to be about what fits your agency best you know hey are you going to go the radar route okay did you know that if you go the radar route there's also some FCC rules and guidelines that you're now going to have to follow that's a big

**[26:23]** one that I guarantee most people are not thinking about when it comes to radar Solutions there are some great players in that space uh if you look at you know uh Campbell Campbell PD uh they're using the Matrix space radar it's a great solution uh just going back and doing that due diligence and also again like I said dfr is only one piece of the puzzle in this public safety technology space you need to make sure that whatever platform you go with is not siloed and that it works with other Public Safety technology ecosystems for real-time crime centers for sharing out this information not only within our organization but beyond our Organization for Mutual Aid agencies for all the federal partners that are coming in to help uh when we have a hurricane response or other Disaster Response we have to play nice we have to share knowledge that is the only way that we boost and continue to grow dfr 2.0 to 3.0 to 10.0 and and again some agencies may not have the Staffing to make dfr a

**[27:29]** reality but these these public private relationships and this kind of dfr as a service is really starting to make waves and if you're a smaller Department out there that you're like man we really would benefit from a dfr program we just don't have the Staffing we don't have the level of expertise there are some strong third-party service companies out there that are doing this work and I would implore you to to connect with them as well right I'm so sorry I have to hit the uh the mute button so I don't sound and look like an idiot which is myo 90% of the time but hey you just hit on a few of my um biases um so as a man aircraft pilot and that's my primary job my my primary job is is flying people from point A to point B and so I'm occupying the airspace and I'm in charge of quite a few different people so you were talking about adsb for those of you that don't know what adsb is or the mod C Veil so uh the mod C

**[28:33]** basically what we're talking about is when you're living close to a bigger style what we refer to in aviation a class Bravo air airport is that you need to have the ability to have see other aircraft have a transponder built into the aircraft so that you can see and avoid and avoid the midair collisions is basically what most of this is set up and that's a big part of the dfr solution and as someone that is on the other side of this equation uh I am so grateful that so many agencies and so many people are out there doing their due diligence to make sure that they're complying with the fa regulations because not only do you not want this aircraft to fall down and hit the you know the citizens that we're flying over but we also don't want to collide with other manned aircraft and and when I tell you how as someone that is in that seat up in the air I'm so very grateful that these regulations are in place um but let's transitioning back a little bit more Captain Moore I I I I saw

**[29:37]** you uh head nodding quite a bit when uh Joshua was uh talking there uh do you want to expand on anything that he was saying and and the complexities of ensuring that you have the airspace deconfliction uh in place yeah I think Josh and Jason both hit on some key points and and at some some time through this event I kept writing little notes to myself trying to thank all the people that showed up to help us uh we had 13 different UAV programs from around the country come and assist um then we had all kinds of Partnerships privately that showed up uh and you know at some one point I felt like a NASCAR driver trying to thank all my sponsors at the end of a race just trying to thank all these people that that was what was key you know they didn't have to show up and and we we try to stay away from mentioning them and I won't do that here but I do need to speak to the fact that was one of our partners that we are we're a client of drone sense and they did do what Jason and Josh just spoke about and what Chief low kind of alluded

**[30:37]** to when this kind of hit the fan when we really realized we had an event and it was going to be one of disastrous proportion here that is the entity that took in everybody and provided my Emergency Operations Center with one feed and at one point in time there were 13 separate drone missions with five different manufacturers all flying underneath one space one air boss one person mitigating Airways one person divvying out uh assignments and that was key to what where we had fallen down in the first few days to what we could find and truly say was successes and so you do need to find that and then we do need to make sure all of us are pushing to make the space better uh and that means at any point in time we do something it affects everybody's program and so I think we were we were trying to be cautious as we set this out um we do run a radar program here as well it didn't come about because I thought hey we need to make sure we are all about some air mitigation it was

**[31:39]** actually brought to me by a fixed Wing pilot um and they had worked with the company that we utilize we partnered with our Hospital who runs the majority of where I share airspace in an actual medical Evac they fly four separate helicopters from a level one Trauma Center here so that's who I'm sharing this airspace with and I want to put a dfr program in place so we found a provider that agreed not only to provide what we needed from DJI remote to remote ID to radar both fixed wing and UAV but also they were going to go the step further to help us ensure and Kyle you'll know this that a fixed wi pilot can see these drones because it was news to me amongst all of the work that we had done that even our helicopter Pilots could not see any of the UAV around them um when our radar was installed we did a quick snippet 30 days we found there were 595 drone flights within a three mile radius of my city uh that was crazy only 50 of those were the the police department so it shows you the

**[32:41]** javious drones are out there and they don't fly by the same rules though they're supposed to so we need to ensure that we're really thinking about Airway mitigation and as we talk about um getting to waivers and what that looks like uh we we definitely need to make sure that that's stays prominent there's a lot of different providers and again Josh hit on this it gets expensive and so we need to make sure that these are things that you're thinking about I know the chief knows this more than any of us that that budget goes really fast and when you get into this space it can dwindle down even quicker and so you know city of Asheville thankfully to the chief that I have and had in the past 100% open to any public safety agency that wants to learn more or do more in the space they can come and see it uh we are currently still running four different management platform systems because we agreed to test and work through a whole lot of different bugs with different versions and so my guys have a capacity I understand what that is but we want to ensure that

**[33:42]** though we got to the place we're at we're actually trying to make it better moving forward somebody can learn from the lessons uh and we had a lot of pitfalls that we fell into but hopefully that ensures that someone who didn't think they could get into this space actually can I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate your willingness Captain Moore and uh Chief low and I and I and I know Jason's very much the same Way Chula Vista is the same way um the openness uh for allowing other agencies to come in so I just want to harp on that point one more time the importance of Aviation safety and following the regulations um with Lita I I teach a a course on crew resource management and the importance of uh Aviation safety culture and we harp on that there's a reason why these regulations are the way they are and a lot of these regulations are as we say in aviation Written in Blood um because somebody or a

**[34:44]** group of people had to die in order for these regulations to become into place thankfully we don't have that yet though uh Captain Moore as you indicated the uh hobbyists do not perform the same way a lot of times than we do and um and and it's important that we educate and share and learn and grow together because you're absolutely 100% right that we all if something if one of us screws up it affects everybody out there and uh the the there's just such an importance for us to share and grow uh grow together so on that note uh Jason with your very unique perspective in managing an entire State not just a state one of the largest in the country with the largest drone program you interact more with other agencies smaller agencies city and county agencies so um what what has been your experience in integrating that way but also I I'd like to hear what it is that you would like

**[35:49]** to see going forward with not only dfr but the uas industry as a whole and then if if you'd like to expand on private and public Public Partnerships um as well yeah thanks Kyle you know the the biggest thing is we're we're in this weird place right now where the fa has really jumped on board with finding ways to enable Public Safety to do more advanced operations and that is great we have a great relationship with the fa we applaud them for um them finding ways to make this happen the problem is and I've told them this and many of my colleagues have as well is for some agencies they're making it a little too easy right having a dfr program is not where you should start until you have a a program that is professional and you've been out there and you've actually done this with your pilots on the sticks you shouldn't even be looking at having a dfr having uh dock drones because there's so many things

**[36:51]** you don't know you don't know how to be safe yet so we really encourage uh agencies to slow down a little bit right figure out the things that they don't know and this goes back to the the collaboration go out and do operations with other agencies and see everything that they're doing and how they're they're mitigating the risk because we unfortunately we don't talk about the risk enough there there's lots of risk in this especially dfr operations and you know the same thing with the FAA I keep telling them hey you got to tell these agencies that they need to slow down a little bit and because your job as the fa is the safety of the national airspace system but when you're doing out waivers like their candy you know maybe that's not the safest um way to do this and there was a a training aspect so something really interesting happened the other day um we got both of our waivers for BV loss with no visual Observer right using airspace awareness and and adsb and stuff and one of those we're we're fairly lucky

**[37:56]** because we have a pretty large budget so we were able to put one of the systems and we applied for a waiver at our training facility that's out in the middle of nowhere so we got our waivers back and and we're reading through it and it says the same thing that that all of them say you know for for BB law stuff that uh 9113 91155 are waved or BB loss operations that are limited to Public Safety operations where the deployment of the unmanned aircraft is deemed a critical component to protect human lives or property and I'm like well time out one of these we didn't ask to do that one of these we asked to just do training they're like well you can't do this you can't get this waiver just for training and then how do you train your people to do this safely in the real world so going through and talking to them they realized hey um yeah we can actually amend the language and allow you to do this just for training purposes not just for the operational stuff and it it's kind of it

**[38:57]** surprised me that this concept hasn't come up before and that other agencies weren't saying hey we need the operational waiver but first we got to train our operators how to do this safely so just again as an example of everybody might need to just slow down especially those new programs and uh the one thing I'll say to anybody that's on here from Public Safety that's still looking to get a drone program is just because it's cool it's not a reason to have a drone program right there there should be some legitimate use because it's going to cost you money and we've had numerous instances where agencies have asked us to help them build out their program they're like what do you want to do what do you want to do with the drones they're like I don't know but having a drone program is cool we're like again man time out you got to you got to pause a little bit but on on the last topic there you know the the public private Partnerships this is really the key to the next phase of dfr where it is now not just the tool for law enforcement but it's now a tool for all

**[40:01]** public safety Fire EMS Emergency Management operations where private sector is maintaining the Drone and the box and the drones and doing the maintenance and and all the upkeep the the really expensive and the labor intensive stuff and the public safety agencies are just paying to be able to leverage the technology you know this is the things that are going on in so many of these metropolitan areas is phenomen phal and the amount of work that's being done with DVR programs is is really saving lives and increasing um the way that law enforcement can respond but a good analog is that like drone delivery where the real benefits are going to be in your rural communities where you it takes an ambulance a long time to get there or it takes fire a long time to get there and having drones strategically placed in rural areas to be able to respond now not minutes before that um fire truck or that ambulance but

**[41:05]** you know 10 15 minutes before that can be a huge benefit and that's what you know in speaking to all the drone delivery Partners it's going to be the same thing so it's but we have to communicate we have to talk together why can't you have a delivery drone in a box sitting next to a public safety drone a box Shing sharing the same intelligent infrastructure and doing more good with drones wholeheartedly agree that definitely is a direction in which we as a community Public Safety Community not just law enforcement but also everybody else that has a a a dog in this fight needs to have access to this technology because it's only going to help everybody in the end uh Chief low y as we're wrapping up uh just thank you to all my fellow uh panelist thank you to NextGen for this opportunity and as was mentioned if uh anyone from the uh law enforcement World wants to come out and take a look at our operations or speak to myself or any of my team we're more than happy to share uh as Brandon said the bumps and bruises and mistakes that we made uh along the way um and

**[42:09]** again just thank you for having us here Chief I certainly do appreciate your willingness to share the lessons and everything that you've learned for everybody else you know not every manufacturer is this way but it does seem that everybody here in the public safety space we all want to learn and grow together uh pu any last thoughts yeah I just want to want to thank PRI and her entire team at uh at FlytBase for putting ongen for making me a part of this panel I uh you know these guys on the panel with me are some of the top tier experts in the space if anyone is looking to have a very Frank and open conversation about selecting Hardware putting a platform together when it comes to dfr operations I I welcome it you can find me on LinkedIn uh but it's it's been great sharing knowledge with you guys today and Kyle thanks for thanks for moderating it's been a pleasure host uh moderating this uh Captain Moore would you like to jump on and say any uh your your last uh uh bit of uh wisdom for us uh it's easy when you follow

**[43:11]** those two because they definitely hit it I mean I think we need to do more of these this definitely needs to be how we increase the space and if we're being honest how we hold all of our platforms accountable uh anybody who's done this already knows you have to be on them we're not in it to make money Kyle made that comment we can't but we need it to be the best we want to provide the greatest tools so that we can serve the community the way that we know we should so we got to push all of those boundaries and make them do the same sometimes that doesn't make them money sometimes it doesn't make us popular but we know what the ultimate goal is and so I think more of these FlytBase and others that put these on the conferences you can go to that you really get into the conversations that make this real uh I think that's going to ultimately prove what we spoke about here but making that space uh better and more accessible awesome gentlemen it's been such a privilege uh being on this panel with you I certainly hope that our audience has been able to take something away please

**[44:12]** reach out to any one of us uh we're all on LinkedIn um and then our emails are obviously out there so you can jump on my last uh little bit that I'd like to hit upon is that you are operating an aircraft that is inside the airspace system you are sharing airspace with man aircraft please treat it accordingly please remember you are aviators you are pilots please understand the regulations please understand what it is that you're doing and the significance of it these are not toys these are tools to be used to save lives we certainly do appreciate everybody that has joined us here at nest genen and we look forward to talking to everybody at some point in the future take care