Pearland Police Department Makes History: The Future of Incident Response for All First Responders

Pearland Police Department Makes History: Revolutionizing Incident Response with Fully Beyond Visual Line of Sight Drone Technology for Enhanced Safety and Efficiency.

History

Drone as a First Responder (DFR) program has become a transformational method of policing that has demonstrated the ability to increase officer and community safety and reduce overall police response times. DFR provides the ability to see what is occurring at an incident before emergency personnel arrive on scene. In addition to the overhead perspective that traditional air support has always provided, DFR allows a trained incident commander to 'virtually' arrive on scene first, sometimes minutes before officers are in harm's way.

The City of Pearland DFR program built upon the Chula Vista, CA Police Department's Drone as First Responder

Image Source: Iris Automation

Program. In 2018, CVPD was granted the ability to partner with the FAA through their UAS Integration Pilot Program. This program focused on testing and evaluating the integration of civil and public drone operations into our national airspace system. From 2018 to May 2023 their DFR program has responded to 15,000 calls for service. Of those calls for service, they have been able to clear a quarter of their calls with only the drone!

Since Chula Vista's pioneering of the DFR program there have been approximately 15 more agencies stand up similar programs. However, all of these DFR programs are required by the Federal Aviation Administration to be able to visually deconflict up to 2 miles of airspace around the drone at all times with dedicated personnel. This creates very costly personnel infrastructures and is difficult to preposition to maintain compliance.

Challenges

Pearland Police Department in Pearland, TX started researching how to remove all personnel that is required to keep visual line of sight of the operational environment in late 2021. We learned that to remove the visual line of sight requirement, we would need 1) A system that can scan the airspace for aircraft 2) Both must operate the same or better than a human visual observer. 3) Deconfliction systems must notify in a manner that is easy for the pilot to understand and mitigate in the event of an incursion.

First, we had to determine how effective a human is at not only locating an aircraft, but also having the ability to know the aircraft's altitude and heading. This is important because a pilot must be able to accurately determine if an aircraft is at high risk for a midair collision. According to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's study "Detecting and Assessing Collision Potential of Aircraft and Small Unmanned Air Unmanned Aircraft Systems by Visual Observers," a human is able to reliably detect an aircraft on average 1.6 miles away. The study went on to suggest that visual observer capacity to accurately estimate collision distance is exceedingly poor.

Next, Pearland researched what systems could scan the airspace and detect aircraft. Through that research, Pearland found Iris Automation and their Casia G system. Their system utilizes a 360-degree camera array that is backed by AI to detect manned and unmanned aircraft. The system also has an ADSB in system to detect with transponders. The system not only has a max detection range of 1.8 miles, but also has a 99% detection rate. Their system also can mesh network to extend the detection to an unlimited range.

Finally, Pearland worked with their piloting and situational awareness software, DRONESENSE, to integrate the detection systems to ensure compliance with the requirements set by the FAA. The detections located by the Casia G systems would populate both visually on the remote operations map and sound off "Intruder."

The Future is Here

In January of 2022 Pearland submitted the initial request and safety case to the FAA for the nations first fully beyond visual line of sight authorization. As expected, the FAA was hesitant to authorize the request. Especially due to Pearland residing in a complex airspace environment. However, after many meetings and discussions, on March 10th, 2023 Pearland was granted the nations first fully beyond visual line of sight authorization! The FAA authorized the City of Pearland to launch their Drone as First Responder program and deploy drones across all 50sq miles of the city in both Class B and Class G airspace. This unprecedented authorization is a massive step forward in revolutionizing how first responders will respond to critical incidents and calls for service. During the month of April Pearland, conducted a full scale test with one of its launch sites using the DJI M30T Docking Station provided by DJI. During the month of April, Pearland observed during 38 total DFR flights in which advanced data was collected, 21 of which the drone was first on scene (55%), 8 times the drone was second (21%). These actually may be skewed a little low, as well, as officers will generally show they have arrived shortly before their actual arrival or the MCT will show an auto arrival if they're within a certain distance but have not actually arrived at the location. Pearland also calculated their response time to be 3.1 minutes on average with a 3-minute median. This includes the approximately 45-50 second launch sequence. Pearland Police's program at full capacity will consist of 6 launch locations all piloted from a central location at the Pearland Police Department. Utilizing DRONESENSE, a pilot not only controls the drone remotely but communicates with the units in the field giving them information and tactical intelligence about what they are responding to and the behavior of the identified subject to be contacted. The system also streams the video feed to the cell phones or mobile computers of the first responders, supervisors, and command staff so they too can see exactly what the drone is seeing prior to arriving onscene. Widespread deployment of DFR Systems will transform the way public safety agencies serve their communities, increasing safety, efficiency, and accountability.

Finally, traditional response to emergency events relies on on-scene personnel to determine if more resources need to be requested or disregarded. Due to the drone providing live feeds of the incident, resources allocation can be accurately determined while responding personnel are still en route. This will allow for Officers to return to service prior to arrival if not needed or allow for the proper resources to be allocated to the incident to bring the incident to closure sooner.

What's Next?

Replication! Pearland Police Department's fmr UAS Integrations Coordinator, Brandon

Karr, stressed with the FAA that this pathway needs to be streamlined and replicated. The FAA shared this belief and is looking forward to working with future agencies to advance public safety UAS programs. Brandon now works for DRONESENSE as their Drone as First Responder Solutions Engineer and Subject Matter Expert. There he is working with agencies from New York to California to recreate Pearland's program.

Pearland Police Department recently conducted a full-scale test of their program and was granted early access to the new DJI M30 docking station. Utilizing this system, they were able to remotely launch, operate, recover, and charge the M30 system further removing personnel associated with the operations.

Brandon Karr is a recognized expert in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for public safety applications. He currently works as the Drone as First Responder Solutions Engineer for Drone Sense and previously served as a police officer, chief pilot, UAS program coordinator, and night shift patrolman for the Pearland Police Department.

Brandon is also a committee member on two subcommittees for the State of Texas, contributing his expertise to the implementation of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) for major disasters or incidents. He is an international sUAS SME for public safety applications and a board member for LEDA and DRONERESPONDERS. Brandon's contributions have been pivotal in shaping the use of UAS technology for public safety and emergency response.