In late 2024, a rash of sightings of unidentified drones flying at night in central New Jersey, including near a military facility, sparked concerns from citizens and fueled a media frenzy. This burdened local law enforcement with the need to respond to an increase in 911 calls, enforce temporary flight restrictions, conduct after-hour patrols and coordinate with better-resourced agencies to investigate sightings.
Although investigations by multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), concluded the sightings did not pose a national security or public safety risk, the mystery around the origin and purpose of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has done little to quell fear the U.S. airspace is vulnerable.
In fact, while the mystery drone sightings in New Jersey were high-profile, they were hardly isolated incidents.
At a congressional hearing in December 2024, Keith Jones of U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a significant increase in UAV sightings at the U.S./Mexico border, many tied to drug cartel activities. In 2024, CBP detected about 45,000 drones in the Southwest border region, with 2,500 entering U.S. airspace.
Not just military installations and borders are at risk – average American communities are at risk. Local law enforcement may find themselves needing to both protect communities with drones and protect them from drones.
Drones as a force multiplier
In the hands of the “good guys,” drones have become almost indispensable. Whether used to search for missing persons, track suspects or assess scenes, drones are a force multiplier that can give speed and situational awareness to first responders before they even arrive on scene.
Drone-as-first-responder (DFR) programs, first launched in 2018, amplify situational awareness and other benefits even more.
“Unlike traditional air support, DFR enables a trained pilot/incident commander to virtually arrive first – often minutes ahead of officers – to relay essential information,” Chief Charles Werner (ret.) explained in a Police1 article examining the first DFR program launched by Chula Vista, California Police Department in 2018. Since launching, CVPD has responded to over 20,000 calls for service and its success has sparked rapid expansion of DFR programs to other public safety agencies across the U.S.
DFRs, on average, reach emergency scenes in under two minutes and can stream live video to authorized users, enabling command staff to make informed decisions about their tactical response. In many cases, the virtual assessment of the scene determines no ground unit response is needed – allowing valuable resources to be deployed to higher priority calls.
The FAA gets on board
Until recently, local law enforcement agencies faced challenges due to regulatory and technological limitations. But those limitations are being eased, expanding what law enforcement and other public safety agencies can do with their drone programs.
Aiming to bolster public safety operations through streamlined processes and expanded operational capabilities, the FAA has made significant updates to drone regulations and waivers. Agencies can more easily apply for waivers from restrictions that have previously limited drone altitude and range and required drone pilots to maintain a visual line of sight. These changes will be particularly impactful for DFR and beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations.
BVLOS operations no longer require a remote pilot to maintain a view of the unmanned aircraft with unaided vision. Waivers to line-of-sight vision allow drones to instead rely on onboard cameras, telemetry, detect-and-avoid sensors and networked command links to stay safe in the National Airspace System.
A watershed moment recently happened when the Elk Grove, California Police Department secured a waiver to operate DFR drones at altitudes up to 400 feet across its entire jurisdiction without a visual observer. The higher operational ceiling offers a broader field of view, the increased range offers faster response times, and noise impact is reduced by higher-altitude flying.
The changes to FAA drone regulations signal a turning point for both DFR programs and BVLOS capabilities. The easing of restrictions on unaided line-of-sight vision and drone altitude and range have opened new opportunities for remote-piloted drones with greater capabilities. Now the barrier is less regulatory than financial. That is where AroVue’s novel leasing model comes in.
A new concept in UAV deployment
AroVue, a flight services company based in Stuart, Florida, aims to close those gaps with a first-of-its-kind leasing program that offers law enforcement agencies access to military-grade advanced drone technology, allowing them to enhance their operations without the need for extensive training or investment. When helicopter support is not feasible or flying conditions are too dangerous, remote-piloted AroVue drones can augment or replace helicopter use at a fraction of the cost.
Enabling police departments to regain the airspace
Although AroVue is a new company, its roots are deep. AroVue’s aircraft are made in Arizona, fully compliant with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and have been tried and tested with the U.S. Coast Guard and CBP.
“Current drone solutions have limited flight time and distance and have heavy costs associated with them,” said Chris Seebert, president of AroVue. “You have to train pilots. You have to maintain the drones. You have to deal with changing technologies. I want to eliminate those barriers and bring this technology to police departments so they can regain the airspace.”
AroVue has two models available for lease, bringing drone-as-first responder capabilities to departments of all sizes. The drones cover more ground than typical quadcopters and can loiter long enough for detectives, negotiators or crash investigators to work without relaunching.
AroVue Max is a long-range UAV with a flight time up to 12 hours. Its quadplane design with separate electronic fuel injection (EFI) propulsion offers extended range along with the flexibility to take off and land vertically (VTOL).
It has a range of up to 100 miles and a payload capacity of 20 pounds for easy mounting of advanced sensors like LIDAR, thermal imaging and high-resolution mapping tools. With in-flight charging, remote start and silent mufflers for covert operation, AroVue Max is optimized for performance and failsafe.
Having the smallest operational footprint of any Group 3 UAV, it can operate at higher speeds and higher altitudes than most law enforcement drones and capture 12 consecutive hours of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance video. The AroVue Max is well suited for use cases like perimeter security, search and rescue and wildland fire overwatch.
AroVue Lyte is a backpack-portable quadplane equipped with FLIR high-definition camera that can capture images in fine detail with sub-inch per pixel ground sampling distance (GSD). Electric propulsion provides two hours of endurance, making it well suited to pursuits, evidence searches, multiple-suspect situations and GIS mapping. Like its larger sibling, AroVue Lyte is VTOL capable and inaudible from 400 feet. At just 10 pounds, a wingspan of 7.5 feet and 1.3-pound payload, it’s sleek and discreet.
Ground control software provides AI-driven autonomy and insight
AroVue’s AI-driven ground control software allows pilots to operate in the background while the drones perform tasks autonomously, like flying preprogrammed routes, avoiding obstacles and handing off midair waypoints using onboard computer vision. The software’s real-time analytics can flag unusual movement, automatically zoom on a fleeing suspect or identify vehicles that match BOLO criteria. Instead of overwhelming operators with raw video feeds, the software provides annotated footage, lightening the operator’s cognitive load during critical calls.
AroVue’s software and aircraft integrate with the agency’s computer-aided dispatch, real-time crime center dashboards and gunshot-detection networks and send coordinates to the dispatch center so, for instance, a confirmed gunfire alert can launch a drone within seconds to provide immediate overhead surveillance.
How AroVue’s leasing program works
Through AroVue’s 18-month lease arrangement, law enforcement agencies can quickly initiate a DFR program with high-tech drones at an affordable hourly rate without the significant costs of building an in-house aviation unit. By including insurance and piloting services as part of the lease, police departments also avoid those ongoing costs while reducing the potential for financial loss due to pilot error or equipment damage.
“We can lower call clearance rates for police departments,” said Seebert. “We save them money and offer DFR capabilities very inexpensively so they don’t have to hire a pilot, they don’t have to bring in any hard costs. We’ll insure it, and we’ll even deliver to them.”
AroVue’s pilots remotely control the drones from a 24/7 dispatch center, working in conjunction with police dispatch centers to provide real-time surveillance and response. AroVue’s experienced pilots are all certified with Part 107 and Part 91, each having exceptional remote controlling skills to ensure safe and efficient deployments that are responsive yet nonthreatening to the public.
The AroVue team works with the FAA directly to work out an operational plan that meets the department’s needs and goals and establishes the appropriate policies and procedures.
Making the benefits of a DFR program affordable
“We want to bring this state-of-the-art technology to departments that couldn’t afford a DFR program otherwise,” said Seebert.
While police helicopters and quadcopters will always have a role to play in law enforcement, police aviation no longer must cost a fortune or be subject to flying conditions too risky for a human pilot. AroVue’s leasing model offers agencies of any size an on-ramp to a DFR program at a price most public-safety budgets can absorb.
As drone incursions keep making news and FAA rules unlock new operational capabilities, departments that embrace flexible, affordable air support may be better positioned to provide faster, intelligence-led emergency response to the public to protect their communities from whatever mysterious foe may lurk in the skies.
To learn more about AroVue’s leasing program, visit AroVue.com.