Fort WaynePD Air Support Unit to Survey Scene to Evaluate Appropriate Response

The Fort Wayne Police Department’s new Drone First Responder Program (DRF) will create a hybrid response for 911 calls within the area.

Under the program, the FWPD Air Support Unit will work closely with the 911 dispatch center, responding to calls with an immediate drone sortie to survey and evaluate the area. The move will allow dispatchers to quickly ascertain the level of response appropriate to the issue. Air Support Unit officer Matt Rowland said the program’s brief time has already proven quite useful, allowing the PD to respond appropriately to calls for suspicious subjects, car crashes, robberies, and other non-medical police calls. Rowland reports that the drones are able to arrive on scene before the officers more than 72% of the time.

Locals worried about privacy have been advised that the drones are quite limited in their scope, kept on a 5-mile leash in downtown Fort Wayne. The drones are also limited to day-only flight, though range and night flights are first up on the list of fixes sought by the FWPD. When asked, the department affirmed that drones won’t be used for surveillance. 

“We don’t record unless there’s evidentiary value,” added Rowland. “We are only responding to calls for services, not just randomly patrolling. We go to those calls for service...we’re not storing hours and hours of video. This isn’t surveillance.”

FMI: https://www.fwpd.org/