SAN MATEO, Calif. and SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Axon, a public safety technology company, and Skydio, a U.S. drone manufacturer, announced the launch of an end-to-end offering for drones in public safety, including a scalable Drone as First Responder (DFR) solution.
Drone as First Responder allows agencies to deploy remotely piloted drones to emergency calls, often arriving before ground units and providing real-time situational awareness to multiple stakeholders from a safe vantage point. DFR has the ability to significantly improve incident response time, enable safer response strategies for officers and the community, and optimize resource allocation. Drones in public safety also support scenarios such as locating suspects and missing persons, de-risking vehicle stops, documenting incident scenes, and collecting evidence. A successful DFR program can provide critical information across an agency's operation or joint task force that can help de-escalate incidents and make the community safer.
This expanded alliance brings together Skydio's leading drone technology with Axon's comprehensive suite of products for public safety, to make the promise of DFR a reality for agencies across the country. The offering includes U.S.-made autonomous drones, onsite docking stations, and integrated flight control software from Skydio; real-time operations, real-time crime center (RTCC) capabilities and evidence management from Axon, as well as fleet and program management through Axon Air Powered by DroneSense; and airspace awareness and deconfliction from Dedrone's innovative technology that enables DFR beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) without the need for visual observers. Enhancing accessibility to BVLOS operations will help to scale the benefits of DFR to more communities and use cases and, in the future, will further enable applications beyond the public safety sector.
With this offering, public safety agencies now have everything they need to customize and scale drones and DFR programs seamlessly. While the full DFR offering is the ideal solution for most customers, the partnership enables the flexibility to support unique agency needs and operational requirements. Each component is available to integrate with a range of other hardware and software options to customize their drone program as needed.