13-Month State Grant Funding Test Run To Improve Response

The Oceanside, California, Police Department is rolling out a trial run of its ‘drone as first responder’ program using funds from a state grant to improve police response times and provide situational awareness for officers enroute to the scene.

The program will be used for emergency calls requiring rapid police presence. The drone can be scrambled from the department’s headquarters by four FAA-certified Part 107 sworn police officer drone pilots, who are permitted to fly the drone beyond visual line of sight or BVLOS. This means that instead of waiting to arrive on-scene to deploy the drone, the drone can be launched from headquarters and arrive well before officers to provide crucial information within minutes.

The drone can reach the city’s northern border with Camp Pendleton or the southern border with Carlsbad much faster than an officer can get there, especially in summer traffic.

Police Chief Taurino Valdovinos said that the situational awareness provided by the drones is “invaluable.” He continued, “It’s an officer who’s watching the video and can provide real-time information to responding officers who are actually going to be on scene. That is helpful and beneficial for us.”

Responding to critics who fear the drones will be used for mass surveillance, the department said that as they are flying, the drones are looking at the horizon, not downward. They only focus on the ground when they arrive on scene.

In addition, they are dispatched only in response to active calls, not for routine surveillance or observation. Valdovinos explained, “It’s call for service and back, call for service and back.”

The Oceanside PD has posted an online portal where people can see where and when a drone has been deployed, the reason for the deployment, and a map of the drone’s route. Oceanside is only the second law enforcement agency approved for the program. The first was Chula Vista, the only law enforcement agency to participate in the FAA’s test program, and their drones have assisted in more than 3,600 arrests since 2018.

FMI:  www.oceansidepolice.com/