Editor’s Note: This article is part of the Police1 Innovation Report, which examines how emerging technologies are reshaping law enforcement operations and leadership decision-making. This series explores how AI is transforming emergency communications, including call processing and information sharing, telecommunicator roles and training, and connections with RTCCs, cameras, drones and other response technologies.
An anxious 911 caller reports, “An angry man is in the street yelling and waving a gun in the air.”
Seconds later, multiple patrol vehicles are running hot to the incident. Meanwhile, a drone pilot, who is monitoring 911 calls as they are received, launches a drone from a fire station less than a mile away. The drone rapidly elevates to 400 feet, flies a straight line to the incident and the pilot is able to calmly report to patrol officers, “The man in the street is holding a cellphone in his right hand, his other hand is empty. He is wearing a blue T-shirt and red shorts. He is walking north on 10th street.”
With this information, patrol officers turn off their lights and sirens, release some adrenaline and mentally prepare for a more deliberate approach to the man in the street.
This incident is one of the more than 2,000 incidents that the Dallas Police Department’s Drone as a First Responder (DFR) Program has responded to since its May 20, 2026 launch. Sgt. Yancy Graves, director of the Dallas DFR program, explained that an important role for the drone pilot is to confirm 911 caller information and give officers important safety details as they approach the scene.
Like this incident, many officers know that what the 911 caller reports and what they find can be two different things.
How Dallas selects calls for drone response
The joint DFR program with the Dallas Fire Department has eight drone docks on the roof of fire stations. The drones are piloted by Dallas PD officers who monitor incoming 911 calls within the CAD system, and the pilots decide to launch based on the call information and dispatcher notes. The pilot provides a radio update while responding to the call and, once on scene, gives officers and dispatchers information about the incident. This may include officer safety concerns, suspect or victim information, the number and type of assets needed, and specific vehicle location details.
The Dallas Police Department has operated a helicopter since 1969 and officer-deployed drones have been in use since 2020. The focus of the department’s aerial operations, from helicopters to drones, is to improve officer safety and reduce the likelihood that officers will use force by collecting and transmitting pre-arrival intelligence to those on the ground.
Sgt. Graves said motor vehicle collisions are among the most common calls for a DFR response.
“Once there, the goal is to determine what assets are needed. What risks are there and give as much information as we can to the patrol officer,” Sgt. Graves said.
In the video below, learn how Dallas PD’s Drone as First Responder program uses remotely piloted drones to respond to 911 calls, provide officers with real-time intelligence, and improve public and officer safety.
Turning an aerial view into officer intelligence
The drones can respond to incidents, including motor vehicle collisions, within a two-mile radius of their fire station rooftop docking stations. Graves explained that pilots respond to nearly every vehicle collision within their operational area and use their experience and intuition to determine which other calls warrant a drone response.
Observing from 200 or 400 feet above the ground, the drone pilot gathers information about the crash, including observable risks to officers and the public, and suggests the types of assets that might be needed, such as fire and EMS, as well as potential lane closures or traffic impacts. The pilot then radios relevant information to responding patrol officers.
"[Drone pilots] don’t make decisions. They give information,” Sgt. Graves said.
In addition to confirming information provided by 911 callers and assessing a crash scene’s safety risks and resource needs, drones are an efficient search-and-rescue tool. Using thermal imaging cameras, drone pilots can help officers quickly locate missing persons, patients or suspects. In one recent incident, a depressed individual called 911 and said he was about to jump from the top floor of a parking garage. A drone pilot quickly located the man using thermal imaging.
“Instead of coming in with 15 squad cars to search an entire building, they were able to do it with two [cars],” Sgt. Graves said.
Without having to conduct a stressful search, officers were able to quickly reach and calmly approach the man and begin defusing the situation, rather than frantically driving their vehicles through the structure and potentially endangering themselves or others.
Drone pilots can also send patrol officers a link that allows them to view the same video feed as the pilot.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en” dir="ltr">Dallas PD’s Drone as First Responder program continues to support our on-the-ground patrol officers by providing aerial coverage on emergency calls while officers respond. On a recent call for service in the 2000 block of Elm Street, our drone unit was overhead at an 11-story… <a href="
Dallas PD’s Drone as First Responder program continues to support our on-the-ground patrol officers by providing aerial coverage on emergency calls while officers respond. On a recent call for service in the 2000 block of Elm Street, our drone unit was overhead at an 11-story… pic.twitter.com/erBtCsRpwh
— Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) June 2, 2026
Staffing the DFR operation
The department’s docked-drone pilots, who work in the real-time crime center, must hold an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate and complete the department’s 40-hour field drone operator course. The application process includes an interview and a review of the applicant’s flight log.
“[Pilots] work very closely in a very high-stress situation,” Sgt. Graves said. “So, personalities matter.”
After being selected, pilots complete a two-day docked-drone operator course and spend several days training in the field alongside an experienced pilot.
The pilots, who are experienced police officers, decide which calls to respond to. With a focus on officer safety, they strive to reach scenes quickly, gather intelligence about what might be happening or needed, and relay that information to responding officers.
Current Dallas DFR operations and RTCC collaborations
Since the program’s launch, pilots have flown 2,083 missions as of this writing, averaging 27 flights per day. During this initial phase, the DFR program operates from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“This is the busiest airspace in Texas,” Sgt. Graves said. “We want to get up and running before expanding into night operations.”
Sgt. Graves explained that pilots do not make decisions for patrol officers; they provide officers with information. Officers and drone pilots, like their helicopter counterparts, can have two-way conversations. By zooming in, changing the camera angle or adjusting the drone’s elevation, pilots may be able to see something officers on the ground cannot.
“There was a tactical situation on the second or third floor of a building,” he said. “My pilot [at the request of officers on the ground] was able to drop low enough that he could actually see into the window what was going on.”
The DFR unit is located in the department’s real time crime center. Although the plan was always for DFR pilots to operate from the RTCC, Sgt. Graves did not anticipate how productive the co-location would be. The teams collaborate daily and regularly ask one another for assistance.
“We do a really good job of working together,” he said. “This morning, first thing, they’re like, ‘This agency is in a chase in this part of a city. Do you have drones available?’”
In the video below, see how Dallas PD’s Drone as First Responder program helped officers quickly locate and safely remove a man walking in freeway traffic.
World Cup lessons for major events
The DFR program launched three weeks before the 2026 World Cup. Although games were played in nearby Arlington, Dallas hosted the FIFA Fan Festival at Fair Park, where a docked drone was set up on the festival grounds. Pilots used the drone to locate people experiencing medical emergencies and identify congested entrance gates. Working with FBI and DHS personnel, the drone pilot also located people operating private drones in violation of temporary flight restrictions.
“We were acting as spotters for the Department of Homeland Security and the state troopers would make contact with those [private drone] pilots,” Sgt. Graves said.
Dallas regularly hosts mass gatherings and sporting events, including football bowl games, the Super Bowl and the Final Four.
Sgt. Graves said lessons learned from the FIFA Fan Festival included the importance of battery management, precise communication between the pilot and personnel on the ground about the location of a suspect or person in need, and giving the drone’s radio priority on cellular networks.
| LISTEN: Dallas PD’s World Cup playbook: Plan in pencil, not pen
One tool in Dallas’ aerial response toolbox
Docked drones are not replacing other assets. Instead, Sgt. Graves believes DFR expands the Dallas Police Department’s aerial operations toolset.
“I believe there’s a place for a helicopter program. I believe there’s a place for a drone program. I believe there’s a place for field drone programs,” he said. “We want to work together to get the best information we can for the officers on the ground.”
Docked drones and field drones — including a dedicated tactical drone unit and a drone unit at every station — expand the department’s aerial capabilities and versatility across a large geographic area. For example, weather near the airfield in South Dallas could ground the department’s helicopter, while conditions on the other side of the metro area might remain suitable for drone launches and flights.
| DOWNLOAD: How to fund Drone as First Responder programs (eBook)
Privacy, recording and public trust
Sgt. Graves wants Dallas residents and visitors to understand that the DFR program is intended to improve officer safety and reduce the need for force by providing officers with actionable pre-arrival intelligence. The program is not used for surveillance, and the department adheres to Texas’ strict rules governing drone video recording.
“We are not recording constantly,” he said. “In the state of Texas and in the city of Dallas, we have four reasons that we can record.”
Sgt. Graves explained that Texas Government Code Chapter 423 allows police to record drone video only under one of these circumstances:
- A felony is being committed
- A judge has signed a warrant authorizing DPD to record
- The property owner has given consent
- There is a life-or-death situation
Through pilot selection, policy, training and monitoring, the Dallas Police Department ensures that drone video is recorded only when permitted by law.
“We truly exist to help,” Graves said.
| NEXT: In this Policing Matters podcast episode, learn what early adopters of Drone as First Responder programs discovered about building community trust, improving officer safety and implementing a 911-driven drone response program.
