SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio — The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office has launched a Drones As First Responders program that will supplement existing dispatches with drones piloted from a central hub.
Lt. Steve Sabers said the goal was to have 15 Skydio drones operating by the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027 with three located in "docks" spread across the county and the other 12 in deputy cruisers.
Kevin Boyle, Skydio's head of major accounts, said the drones they provide would allow for a pilot to see all calls for service in the region and dispatch a drone with the click of a button.
"So no longer do we have to rely on manual pilots that have weather conditions standing outside on a cold day in Ohio," Boyle said.
The pilots would have special first responder waivers from the FAA to operate the drones out of line-of-site and over cars and people.
The drones work through multiple connection systems, including LTE telecommunications systems, so they can be piloted remotely anywhere a cell phone can reach.
Sabers said initial plans are to use the drones to get a visual on scenes before deputies or officers arrive and provide over-watch in potentially dangerous situations like traffic stops, domestic violence situations and more.
"Our expectation is this will never replace the officers on the street," Sabers said.
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Boyle highlighted some of the potential for the DFR program to automate some of the dispatch processes.
"We hope to identify certain calls that we always want to send a drone to, and, keeping in guidelines with Hamilton County Sheriff's Office policy, we might remove the need for someone to approve that flight and just autonomously send a drone to that call."
WCPO asked if Boyle could address potential concerns about automating a part of the 911 response system.
"I would say the sheriff's office has done a wonderful job of creating an ironclad policy," he said.
WCPO also asked Sabers if there was any intention to add offensive capabilities to their drones.
"I can tell you that the FAA has very strict restrictions on that," he said. "Any offensive capabilities in our department, we have no intention of doing that whatsoever."
The Skydio drones, docks and pilot systems were all made possible as part of a 10-year contract the office entered into with Axon, a company that also provides body-worn cameras, dashboard cameras and data systems for them.
Boyle said the systems all work together allowing for things like the geolocation of deputies who may not know or be able to convey their location to dispatchers.
"The Drone as a First Responder pilot will actually see an augmented reality pillar shoot up into the air from that deputy's body camera and be able to send the drone directly to that deputy's body camera," he said.
Sabers said, according to other regions where this technology has been deployed, the drone program could help reduce man-hours on calls for service by 20% helping the department be more efficient.
"All we want to do is give our communities one more tool to keep our officers safe and to keep them safe," he said.
The office said exactly where the drones would be deployed and how they're used would change based on feedback from deputies in the field.
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