First announced at Ascend in September 2024, Skydio DFR Command is making Drone as First Responder programs a reality today.
Skydio customers have already begun flying missions at scale, enhancing safety in their communities and enabling data-driven continuous refinement of the most advanced Drone as First Responder strategies (see Skydio’s study of 2,000 flights here). Now, DFR Command will be a critical component of every Skydio DFR program going forward - it’s the glue that transforms drones and docks into a true DFR system - so, in this blog, we will share more information on the product so agencies of all sizes can implement the transformative technology.
Drone as First Responder (DFR) programs can increase apprehension rates, keep officers and communities safer, and save valuable agency resources.
But building a DFR program is far more complex than simply buying a drone. It takes many pieces of integrated technology, closely coupled with new standard operating procedures (SOPs), and compliance with a web of regulatory and community policies to realize this transformational new response method.
Early adopters of DFR have had to contend with tremendous complexity to get even the smallest programs up and running:
- Manually assembling a Frankenstein of drones, docks, piloting software, fleet management software, and community transparency technologies - each provided by a different vendor, typically through a reseller that has limited access to the underlying engineering.
- A drone industry that doesn’t prioritize integrations. Drones must integrate seamlessly into standard systems like evidence management, computer-aided dispatch, real-time crime centers, body-worn cameras, and more as they simply a powerful new spoke in a much larger hub of technology.
- Vendors that point to one another when something doesn’t go right.
We believe that DFR is too important to leave success up to chance.
Enter DFR Command
Working closely with over 600 public safety agencies over the past five years, Skydio's engineers, technologists, and former law enforcement operators have learned the best way to build a scalable drone program that makes a massive impact on the community it serves.
These learnings led us to develop Skydio DFR Command - the world's first software solution built to start, operate, and grow DFR programs.
At its basic level, a DFR program must solve three phases: Ready, Respond, Resolve
Ready: Be Ready & Know Where to Go
A successful program starts with positioning docked drones in the right areas and having the ability for those drones to respond quickly to calls for service. Skydio has developed a proprietary simulation algorithm to help agencies choose the best locations for Docks, setting them up to respond to over 90% of high-priority calls for service within 2 minutes. Geographic location and drone flying range are important variables to consider, but so are historical call patterns, topography, budget, community policies, and more.
Once Docks are in place, drone response starts with integration into the CAD, RTCC, ALPR or acoustic sensor system that can alert and provide the location of the incident. DFR Command comes pre-integrated with Axon Fusus to receive real-time events or can be integrated with your specific systems. Considering topography, environment, potential obstacles and geofences, Skydio Pathfinder, chooses the best flight path to reach the incident’s GPS coordinates. With integration into Dedrone by Axon, or your choice of airspace awareness system, DFR Command will display other airborne traffic for deconfliction.
Respond: Get Eyes on Scene Fast and Safe; Inform All Who Need to Know
It’s now time to respond to the incident and gain situational awareness. DFR Command provides the capabilities to get on scene quickly and safely while providing live streaming to responding officers and stakeholders:
- With pre-positioned Docks for X10 and automated incident triggers from a CAD, RTCC, ALPR or acoustic sensor, drones can be airborne in 20 seconds with a single click.
- Officers can request drone overwatch by simply pushing a button on their Axon body-worn camera.
- Drones in patrol cars can be hand-activated onsite by an officer, with flight controls handed off to an operator in a remote center. The onsite officer can now get backup support while maintaining situational awareness of what is in front of them.
- With Skydio Autonomy, flight routes are automatically suggested to account for terrain, geofences, airspace limitations, and more.
- Augmented reality (AR) overlays for street names, house numbers, and points of interest make situational awareness easy, helping all stakeholders quickly orient themselves to every situation.
- All responding officers receive a common operating picture, live streamed to any phone or browser with a one-tap ReadyLink. Drone views can be automatically streamed to Axon Fusus, Axon Respond, or your choice of RTCC system.
Augmented reality (AR) overlays for street names, house numbers and points of interest help operators orient themselves quickly.
With onboard AI by Skydio Autonomy, drones avoid obstacles and enable operators to fly up, down, sideways, and backward while operators keep their focus on the incident, not on steering the aircraft. Skydio X10 can also fly low and close to objects—being able to search for suspects by seeing clearly through windows into vehicles and buildings day and night.
Resolve: Comply with Evidence and Community Policies
Drone-captured media may be required as evidence and should be treated with care. An industry-first, Skydio X10 now comes with recorded media watermarks. Critical information including date, time, X10 serial number, sensor package and the specific camera used for that capture moment will be notated in the upper left corner of video and photo files. This data allows for second-by-second synchronization with body camera footage, providing an even more comprehensive, objective source of truth of an incident from many different vantage points.
With media now marked for evidentiary use, DFR Command automatically uploads files to Axon Evidence and other digital evidence management systems upon flight completion.
DFR Command enables first responders to continually build community trust through transparency. With the new Transparency Dashboard, agencies can, at their discretion, provide their communities with flight details such as date, start/stop time, telemetry, reason for flight, and case number. This is instrumental in helping community stakeholders gain trust in the program and alleviate fears of technology misuse.
Grow your drone operations into critical capabilities for your community.
As technology continues to advance, so will your DFR program. Putting together a DFR program requires skills that your agency may or may not already have, and may not have an ongoing need for. Skydio is here to help you with the core aspects of starting your DFR program, including regulatory, advisory, and deployment services.
This set of services has proven effective in standing up some of the world’s leading DFR programs, and we are excited to bring them to your community in concert with our technology offerings.
DFR Command is a giant leap forward in our mission to deliver the most complete and capable DFR solution to emergency responders. It incorporates feedback and experience from customers who are blazing the DFR trail every day, from small suburban environments to expansive metropolitan cities. When combined with Skydio's deep partnership with Axon, DFR Command and Skydio offer the most comprehensive and vertically integrated DFR solution. We know DFR is a game changer, and we can't wait to see how our customers use autonomous drones to deliver safer communities everywhere.
Get Started Today
If you think DFR could be useful for your community, Skydio can get a low-friction trial up and running in a matter of weeks to start showing value to your command staff, city councils, mayors, and more.
