Montgomery County has expanded its Drone as First Responder Program to include Bethesda.
The program, which uses drones to respond to 911 calls, was first launched in downtown Silver Spring and Wheaton in 2023 and later expanded to Gaithersburg.
According to Montgomery County Police, drones are often the first to arrive at the scene of incidents, including shoplifting, robbery, and assault cases. The average response time is under 90 seconds, with many drones reaching the scene in less than a minute.
“The Drone as First Responder Program represents one of our largest and smartest investments in utilizing technologies to keep our communities safer and our police and first responders safer,” County Executive Marc Elrich said at a press conference last week. “This program is part of our ongoing efforts to leverage technology to make our operations more effective and it is a key innovation in public safety.”
Montgomery County is the largest police jurisdiction in the U.S. using drone technology, but Maryland lawmakers are considering new regulations.
Reactions to the DFR program are mixed, with some supporting the flexibility provided by drones and others concerned about privacy rights.
“I am pleased to see the Drone as First Responder Program extended to Bethesda,” said County Council President Kate Stewart. “The DFR responds to calls for service within minutes, providing critical real-time information to police, enabling them to better assess situations. I am proud of the work we did when the program was first introduced to make sure that while we advance public safety through the use of technology, we also protect people’s privacy and civil liberties. The online dashboard and guardrails we put in place for how the drones can be used do just that.”
According to MCPD, data from the DFR dashboard shows that drones are mainly used in theft and robbery cases, with the second-highest number of calls for suspicious persons or vehicles.
Drones have also been used to help locate crime suspects, individuals experiencing mental health crises, and missing persons, and have helped identify repeat shoplifters and suspects in office building sledgehammer attacks.
Footage from the Raven 1 drone was instrumental in securing a conviction for an assault in downtown Silver Spring last year.
“This week’s expansion is an exciting milestone in the Montgomery County Police’s Drone as First Responder program,” said Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada. “This program has continued to meet the expectation placed by the community – to provide the best information to officers in the field so they can make the most informed and safest decisions as possible. We appreciate the support of our elected officials, as well as our community members, who have supported this cutting-edge endeavor.”
More information about the Drone as First Responder program is available online at montgomerycountymd.gov.
Photo: © S. Galindo – stock.adobe.com