90 Seconds: County Drone Program Provides Speedy 911 Call Response
St. Louis County deploys aerial units designed to arrive on scene before patrol cars.
Source: Bots and Drones ↗
A new St. Louis County Police drone fleet program is seeking to place aerial units on scene before patrol cars arrive, with a target of 90-second response times to 911 call locations.
The drone-as-first responder-program program is meant to provide dispatchers an airborne option the moment a call comes in. The department has not provided details on how many drones will be in the fleet, the vendor, or the contract value.
The department has set a 90-second operational benchmark for the aircraft to reach a call location, which would be well ahead of typical ground-unit arrival times for the county.
St. Louis County Police has not said which drone models will be used, the geographic coverage area, or how many simultaneous calls the fleet can service.
It is also not yet known whether the program is running as a pilot or has been fully operationalized countywide.
