ORLANDO — The value of a drone as first responder (DFR) program isn’t always measured by how quickly an aircraft reaches a scene. Sometimes, it’s measured by the officers who can be redirected to another call, the extensive search that isn’t needed or the hours of investigative follow-up that can be avoided.
Those operational benefits are becoming clearer as established DFR programs move beyond demonstrating that drones can arrive ahead of officers and begin examining what that early aerial perspective makes possible.
At IACP 2026, Skydio co-founder and CEO Adam Bry described DFR’s impact as two-sided: better outcomes during high-stakes incidents and greater efficiency during routine police operations.
During the Skydio-sponsored session, “DFR at Scale: Proven Results, Expanding Missions,” leaders from the Orlando and Cincinnati police departments and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office described how their programs are putting those benefits into practice. Their experiences offer lessons in gathering information before officers arrive, reducing unnecessary responses and intervening in crimes while they are still unfolding.
Cincinnati: Reducing patrol responses
When the Cincinnati Police Department began exploring DFR, the department was facing a challenge familiar to police leaders nationwide: declining staffing levels and growing pressure to make better use of available personnel.
Chief of Staff Kristen Cosgrove said the department was approximately 140 officers below its authorized strength around the time it began examining how drones might help manage lower-priority calls for service.
The department’s initial approach was deliberately modest. A handful of officers operated handheld drones from a van, monitoring radio traffic and responding to calls to determine whether aerial observation could provide useful information before committing to a much larger investment.
That proof-of-concept period helped Cincinnati establish a case for expanding the program. In July 2025, the department launched its first phase of dock-based DFR, deploying nine drones across approximately 40% of the city. Locations were selected using call data to prioritize areas with the greatest demand.
By March 2026, Cincinnati had expanded to 25 drones covering roughly 90% of the jurisdiction.
The department also incorporated Live911, which allows drone operators to listen to emergency calls as dispatchers gather information. That early access helps operators identify incidents appropriate for drone deployment and begin gathering information while the call is still being processed.The result is that responding officers can receive information about what is happening before reaching the scene — and, in some cases, learn that their response is no longer necessary.
“Twenty-one percent of the time, a field officer was disregarded from a call for service,” Cosgrove said. “So that, to us, is the biggest return.”
The examples aren’t necessarily dramatic. Officers may be dispatched to a traffic collision only to discover that the vehicles are no longer there. A reported roadway obstruction may have been removed. A silent 911 call or an unknown-trouble report may warrant an initial assessment before determining what resources are needed.
With DFR, operators can sometimes establish those facts without requiring officers to travel to the location first.
That has been particularly valuable in Cincinnati’s busiest patrol districts, where Cosgrove said officers had expressed frustration with responding to calls that ultimately required little or no police action.
There was skepticism when the program began, particularly because officers were being reassigned from patrol to operate drones. But as field personnel experienced the benefits of earlier information and fewer unnecessary responses, acceptance grew. The department subsequently doubled the size of its drone unit as it expanded coverage.
Cincinnati’s experience illustrates an important operational consideration: The benefit of DFR depends not only on how quickly a drone can arrive, but also on whether the department has processes in place to use that information to adjust its response.
Orlando: Gathering critical information
Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith acknowledged that he was initially unconvinced about DFR. “I’m an old-school cop,” Smith told attendees. “When this first came to me, I was like, OK, whatever. I wasn’t really impressed.”
That perspective changed as the department began operating drones during a pilot program in June 2025, followed by full-time operations in August.
Orlando now operates 11 drones from nine locations across its 104-square-mile jurisdiction. Smith said drones can reach locations throughout the city in approximately two to five minutes and arrive ahead of responding officers 77% of the time.
A significant part of the program’s effectiveness comes from how it is integrated into the department’s existing information-gathering operations.
Orlando’s real-time crime center operates around the clock, with personnel monitoring approximately 1,000 cameras throughout the city. The center also has access to license plate reader information, while drone operators work in the same facility.
The department uses Prepared 911 technology to identify keywords during incoming emergency calls. When a caller mentions circumstances such as gunfire or a burglary in progress, personnel in the crime center receive an alert and can evaluate whether the incident meets the criteria for launching a drone. That process can begin while dispatchers are still speaking with the caller.
For responding officers, the benefit is receiving information about the incident before they reach the location.
Smith described an incident initially reported as involving a stolen license plate that escalated into gunfire. A responding drone captured the developing situation, allowing personnel monitoring the footage to alert approaching officers to the shooting and provide information about safer routes into the area.
Rather than arriving with only the information contained in the original dispatch, officers could adjust their approach based on what was happening in real time.
“You know, the big thing for me was the officer safety piece,” Smith said, describing the value of having an aerial view of an incident before officers arrive.
The same information-gathering capability can also help departments avoid unnecessary emergency driving.
Smith described situations in which a single caller reports possible gunfire, prompting officers from across the city to begin responding urgently. If a drone reaches the location and observes no apparent activity, the department can reassess the urgency of the response and have a smaller number of officers investigate.
That doesn’t eliminate the need to check the report. It gives supervisors additional information to determine how officers should approach it.
DFR has also proved useful in incidents that have little to do with apprehending suspects.
Smith described a missing-child incident involving an autistic child who left a parent’s vehicle along International Drive, a busy tourist corridor. A drone located the child and directed officers to the location. Without that aerial view, Smith said, the department might have needed numerous officers searching a large area, with no guarantee they would quickly find the child.
For Orlando, the common thread across these incidents is situational awareness: giving officers and supervisors information they otherwise might not have until personnel reached the scene.
Jefferson Parish: Changing how crimes are interrupted
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto offered a different perspective on DFR’s operational value: how it can help deputies intervene in crimes as they unfold and maintain awareness of suspects’ movements without committing large numbers of personnel to searches.
The Louisiana agency began its DFR program in November 2025 and has expanded to 26 dock-based drones. Lopinto reported approximately 17,000 flights since the program began, with drones arriving first on scene 83% of the time.
One area where he has seen a change is retail theft.
As the department began using DFR, loss prevention personnel at local retailers became increasingly interested in working with deputies to identify and interrupt thefts.
Initially, Lopinto said, the partnerships produced an unexpected result: Reported thefts and arrests increased as more incidents were brought to law enforcement’s attention. Over time, he said, theft reports began declining while arrests remained elevated. The ability to intervene while an incident is unfolding has changed the process.
When a retailer reports a theft in progress, deputies can launch a drone and observe a suspect leaving the business. If the suspect enters a vehicle, the drone can maintain visual contact while ground units are directed toward an appropriate location for an apprehension.
That can allow deputies to identify both the person who entered the store and a getaway driver, recover stolen merchandise and document the incident without relying entirely on surveillance footage collected after the suspects have left.
Lopinto cited one Bath & Body Works location where losses involving three-wick candles had declined 30%, a result he associated with the partnership and the department’s ability to intervene.
The operational benefit extends beyond retail theft.
In one example presented during the session, a resident called 911 about a suspicious vehicle parked behind a shopping center at approximately 2 a.m. The circumstances were unclear, and there was no initial indication that a serious crime was underway. A drone launched to investigate and observed an attempted burglary at a commercial building.
The suspect fled in a vehicle before deputies reached the location, but the drone maintained visual contact as the vehicle traveled through nearby streets.
Because deputies could continue observing the vehicle from the air, they were able to coordinate an eventual stop without initiating a conventional vehicle pursuit.
The incident illustrates why Lopinto believes agencies should consider deploying drones to a broader range of calls rather than limiting their use exclusively to incidents initially classified as violent crimes.
A report of suspicious activity may turn out to be unfounded. But it can also be the first indication of a crime in progress, and early aerial observation can help deputies determine which is the case.
Another incident began when a resident reported suspicious individuals observed through a doorbell camera. A responding drone captured the suspects’ movements as they entered a residence and later fled through neighboring yards. Deputies arriving on scene could receive updates about the suspects’ locations rather than attempting to follow them through multiple properties without continuous visual contact.
The ability to maintain that observation has implications for how agencies use perimeters, K-9 teams and other resources during searches.
Lopinto said he began noticing fewer large perimeter operations and decided to examine the department’s K-9 deployment figures. Comparing the first nine months of 2025 with the same period in 2026, deployments had declined from 57 to 31 — a reduction of approximately 46%.
The comparison does not establish that DFR alone caused the decrease, but Lopinto said it reflected what deputies were experiencing: aerial observation was helping them locate suspects more efficiently and coordinate apprehensions with fewer extensive searches.
There are also implications for investigative follow-up.
When deputies can observe a crime, track a suspect and make an arrest during the initial response, they may avoid some of the subsequent work associated with identifying suspects, collecting footage from multiple locations and conducting follow-up interviews.
His examples illustrate a broader operational distinction: DFR isn’t simply helping deputies respond to reported crimes. In some circumstances, it’s helping them identify and interrupt criminal activity while it is occurring.
The operational lessons for police leaders
Although the three agencies have different deployment models and priorities, their experiences reveal several considerations for departments evaluating or expanding DFR.
First, early information is only valuable if it reaches the people who can act on it. Cincinnati’s Live911 integration and Orlando’s real-time crime center demonstrate the importance of connecting drone operations with dispatch and responding officers rather than treating the aircraft as a separate resource.
Second, call selection matters. Cincinnati has focused heavily on assessing calls that may not require a patrol response. Jefferson Parish has demonstrated the value of launching on suspicious activity that might otherwise receive a more limited initial response. Those approaches serve different operational objectives and require agencies to establish appropriate deployment criteria.
Third, agencies need to measure more than flight volume and response speed. Calls from which officers are disregarded, the duration and staffing of searches, the information available before arrival and the amount of investigative follow-up required can provide a fuller picture of a program’s operational impact.
The results reported during the session are specific to each agency and should be evaluated in that context. But they suggest that DFR’s longer-term value may depend less on how many drones a department operates than on how effectively it incorporates the information they provide into everyday police work.
For departments already operating DFR, the next question may not be how quickly a drone can reach a call. It may be what officers can do differently once it gets there.
