How to Reduce your 911 Response Times by 50% and Save Lives

There are two major challenges associated with public safety incident response today:

1. Slow response times. According to Safety.com, it takes 7 to 14 minutes on average to respond to high priority calls. 
2. No one can assess, plan, or manage an incident response to an incident until unit(s) arrive on-scene.

Response time is from when the call is received to when a first responder arrives at the incident. So how do we cut our response times by 50% and have the ability to assess, plan, and manage incidents? Drones as First Responders (DFR). Before we look at the new normal, let’s look at how how public safety response works today.

The Current Concept of Operations for Public Safety Response

For the last thirty years, the concept of operations for public safety response has been to answer the call, determine the incident type and location, then send unit(s). The unit(s) travel to and then arrive on-scene. Upon arrival, the first responder works the incident.

Public safety agencies are evaluated by their high priority call response times. A Priority 1 call is an immediate threat to life and a Priority 2 call is an immediate risk of major property loss. Priority 3 calls have no immediate threat and much slower response times but sometimes a Priority 3 call becomes a Priority 1. The longer the response, the less likely you are to find suspects or witnesses. Response times are critical.

Why are response times high? As crimes and 911 calls increase, response times increase. A major incident or multiple high priority incidents will increase response times. According to Stacker, during busy hours, the top 50 most congested cities have last mile speeds from 7-23 mph. Traffic destroys response times. As staffing decreases, response time increases. Many of these elements are beyond public safety’s control.

The next challenge begins when the first responder arrives at the incident scene with no plan and no situational awareness or backup. The reality at the incident scene for most first responders is:

• Incident scenes change in 7 to 14 minutes.
• Most suspects or witnesses have left the incident scene.
• The incident type may be different from what the caller described or may have ended.
• It may be dangerous for a responder to exit their vehicle with no situational awareness.
• If additional responders are needed, they must come from farther away.
• There is no management assistance at an incident scene until other responders arrive.

The current concept of operations places both the citizens and the first responders at risk. Many agencies have requested additional staff funding to lower response times. Not many succeed in today’s political and economic environment. The industry needs a new concept of operations that will significantly decrease response times and allow managed incidents for a small incremental cost.

A New Concept of Operations for Public Safety Response

What if I told you a city of 250K people located within a major metro area had a new concept of operations for public safety response that resolved almost every problem with the current system? Let’s look at some Key Performance Indicators for this new concept of operations:

1. Cut their Priority 1 and Priority 2 response times by 17% and 34% respectively.
2. Put an experienced police officer at the incident scene in under 3.4 minutes on average in rush hour traffic. The police officer is an Incident Response Manager (IRM) who:

• Conducts a risk-free Situational Awareness (SA) Assessment of the incident from an overwatch (5 -30 seconds).
• Creates an Incident Action Plan (5-30 seconds).
• Implement the IAP and brief vehicle based first responders (if needed), provide SA intelligence if needed (video or pictures), prior to first responder(s) arrival on-scene. (0 seconds – 1 minute)
• Provides Incident Management if needed. (30 seconds to 15 minutes)
• When the incident ends, the IRM tele-transports to the next incident without travel time and begin the next SA Assessment.

3. The cost was two additional police officers, eight part time personnel and 120K of capital.

You are probably thinking this is the Twilight Zone. No, this is the new Chula Vista Police Department’s Concept of Operations for Public Safety Response that was started in 2018 and then implemented citywide in 2021.

New Roles for a New Concept of Operations

The key to implementing this new concept of operations is three new roles and a new application:

Drones as First Responders (DFR): The CVPD has eight drones located on four launch area rooftops, in different areas of the city. Drones fly over traffic and intersections and arrive quickly. DFRs have a 30X zoom and hi-def video and record evidence.

Incident Response Manager (IRM): Two IRM’s who are experienced police officers work a total of 70 hours each week during daylight. The IRM will perform all Step 2 tasks and manage the incident if needed. This IRM works in the Crime Information Center and views the incident from the DFR camera.

Pilots in Command (PIC): Four PICs are located at the four launch areas. They are responsible for DFR maintenance and drone and airspace safety, and will take control of the DFR in an emergency.

The Drone Application: Each time a DFR is assigned to an incident, the incident location is entered into the application and the drone flies itself to the incident. The IRM takes control of the DFR at the incident and performs their tasks. The drone then returns itself to the launch point.

The following chart defines each step in the new concept of operations.

This new concept of operations enables agencies to accurately assess, plan, implement, and manage incidents. The DFR enables many new response options that improve response including:

1. The DFR arrives on average 50% faster than a mobile unit that is responding to the same incident.
2. Roughly 26% of the 3,426 incidents the DFR responded to did not require a first responder. This frees up first responder resources for other higher priority incidents.
3. This faster response time plus the ability to immediately assess the situation allows the IRM to:

• Quickly determine if the incident type or response needs to change.
• Capture incident activity and video that may not be available to an officer arriving minutes later.
• Provide additional response services, like safely and discretely following people and vehicles.
• Analyze the video to determine if the person of interest has a weapon.
• Make the decision to stay on-scene and actively manage the incident so responders stay safe.
• Provide live-stream video of the scene to first responders on their cell phones or laptops.

The Brookhaven Police Department estimated a DFR response costs roughly 10% of a typical police response. If you really want to see how these steps work, then watch the video.

The SA Assessment step is critical because incident types change. What was reported as a noise disturbance three minutes ago may become a battery incident before the first responder arrives. An animal nuisance complaint may turn into a robbery, and a smoke alarm may become a fire.

The IAP could be as easy as there is no incident or as complex as there was a shooting and two persons of interest are still at the scene so we are going to a stage…

Many agencies are now looking at additional DFR uses including:

• A DFR can quickly determine what is a non-violent call so an alternative response can be sent.
• Use the DFR video to assist in refining a Use of Force system.
• Delivering time sensitive critical EMS supplies like an AED, Narcan, or a tourniquet.

Other Public Safety Drone Uses

According to DRONERESPONDER.org, there were over 4,000 public safety agencies with drones in 2021. Some key public safety drone uses include:

• Assessing risks and dangers for all police and fire scenes.
• Special events management.
• Mapping accident scenes and surveying crime scenes.
• Search and rescue.
• Access explosive devices.
• 3D models for security planning and drone security.

How DFR Operations Will Scale in the Next Three Years

In 2020, the FAA approved additional Certificates of Authorization (COA) for DFR operations for the Clovis Police Department, the Redondo Beach Police Department, and the Brookhaven Police Department. The CVPD COA was used as a model for these agencies. New agencies that want to implement a DFR program can use this process.

A COA differs from the Part 107 rules in that most commercial drone pilots fly under. A COA is granted to a government agency and can request specific activities that not be available under Part 107.

As of 2021, there are over 4,000 public safety agencies using drones so a DFR program may be the logical next step. The key step for DFR to begin scaling will be success stories like:

• Every agency who significantly reduces their response times.
• Every time a DFR saves an officer’s or a citizen’s life. 
• Arrests made due to the DFR.
• How the DFR program enables alternate response.
• How the DFR lowers the cost per response.

Once these stories start, the public will demand a 3.5 minute response time.

There is a public safety non-profit organization DRONERESPONDERS.org whose mission is to enable public safety UAS use and they provide research, insights, training, and education. DRONERESPONDERS.org has a Drone as a First Responder Working Group to help facilitate this program to other departments around the world. 

Will the industry grow from 4 to 400 DFR agencies over the next three years? Probably. Each DFR success story will lead to an increased demand for DFR operations. Many agencies who use drones today could be early adopters. DFR operations will become the new normal for progressive agencies.

What needs to happen for DFR operations to become the new normal for every agency? That step is Autonomous Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations. BVLOS operations means fully autonomous drone flights, so no pilots and no observers on rooftops.

Autonomous BVLOS Operations

The FAA is working on a number of new BVLOS pilot projects. In 2021, the FAA formed a BVLOS rules drafting committee and expects the first draft within 6 months. The new rules may take effect in the next three years. These new rules should:

• Eliminate the need for the PIC thus significantly reducing DFR program cost.
• Allow the number of DFR’s per location to increase, further decreasing response times.
• The DFR fleet will be housed at fire stations with their own docking stations.
• If the fire stations are insufficient, a DFR docking station can be installed in slow response areas.
• DFR capabilities will expand so they can provide more services at the incident scene.

Summary

When the new BVLOS rules begin, a DFR program will be the new normal. As the numbers of DFRs increase, the average response time will decrease to 2.5 minutes. There will be more DFRs then there are fire engines and ambulances today. Both the public and first responders will be safer.

Who would have a thought DFRs, a fast response time, and incident response management would change everything? Then again, maybe 2.5 minutes is too slow. . Stay tuned…

So for those of you who said It’s the End of World as We Know It: The 911 Center in 2026, and I Feel Fine would never happen by 2026, you were right. It will be four years.

Thank You for Reading About 2.5 Minutes

At LinkedIn, I regularly post articles about technology trends in public and enterprise safety. If you want to read future posts like this, go to my LinkedIn page and Follow me to stay updated.

Please provide comments; I hope to foster discussion on the future of public safety. If you read this article and want to read more, I highly recommend you read another in this series: The 911 Center in 2026