The mission of our Drone-as-First Responder (DFR) Program is to provide the fastest and safest possible support to our city’s first responders in a responsible, prudent, and transparent manner. Our goals are by necessity; to increase safety, reduce response times, and increase effectiveness and efficiency. Nationally, drones have become critical in providing a non-invasive view of an incident for responding personnel, as well as searching for missing persons, and determining logistics and strategies in dynamic and [often rapidly] evolving situations.
 

Our DFR is not used to proactively, or preemptively, seek wrong-doing or invade privacy. It is used specifically to respond to emergency calls and enhance our ability, and expectation to serve you. As another transparency measure for our community members, we use software that automatically tracks and logs all drone flights launched by our department, and these are publicly available for your review.