In 2019, drones have definitely become an integral part of the public safety landscape and to some, drones are now considered mission critical. Flashing back to 2015, drones had shown some progress but were still mired in strict Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. The use of drones was limited to early adopters, many of which already had aviation divisions for manned aircraft.
In 2016, the most important factor to enhance adoption was on the regulatory side when the FAA published new rules for both public agency flight (Certificate of Authorization or COA) and commercial flight (Part 107). Even after these regulatory changes, drones did not really start expanding throughout public safety until the catastrophic hurricanes in 2017. In addition to the hurricanes, other large natural disasters such as floods, tornados, wildland fires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions would unequivocally prove the value of public safety drones.
In 2018, the Bard Center for the Study of the Drone published a report that over 900 public safety agencies in the United States had received an approved COA from the FAA. This report did not capture the entire data as there was no easy way to ascertain public safety agencies operating solely under Part 107 rules. For example, the Bard study had identified 26 public safety agencies that had COAs in Virginia. After additional research, I identified 26 additional agencies operating under Part 107. Based on Virginia’s data, it is clear that the reference to 900 COAs (while correct) is a very modest number of public safety agencies with drone programs nationally (COA and Part 107). Additionally, Virginia saw a growth from two public safety agencies with drone programs in 2016 to nearly 50 in 2018. A similar trend is occurring globally, and public safety is implementing drone programs at a much faster pace. This global trend is also illustrated by the many examples of growing European public safety agencies with drone programs and by the formation of the European Emergency Number Association Public Safety UAS Committee and the International Emergency Drone Organisation.
…
