When an emergency call comes in, first responders often don’t have the luxury of knowing exactly what they’re walking into. They may get a report that there’s a fire, but no additional information on how large it is or where its hotspots are located.
It’s led some emergency response departments to turn to drones, which can scope out the scene within minutes.
“So they can have situational awareness of what's happening out in the field and how they can direct or redirect emergency crews to respond to those incidents,” said Richard Fox, the director of DriveOhio’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Center .
Drones have been used to inspect infrastructure, transport goods and even monitor crops in farm fields. Now, Ohio is piloting the Drones for First Responders program. It will help public safety and medical emergency departments across the state acquire drones, train officers to operate the unmanned aircraft and standardize an approval process for the tech.
Created by the state legislature, the two-year long pilot is the nation's first statewide drone program for first responders, according to Fox. It will explore how drones could help respond to car crashes, natural disasters and search and rescue calls.
How drones could help
Proponents of drones say the technology can better inform emergency departments about what’s needed at a scene, leading to quicker and more specialized care.
Plus, Fox said drones could help address staffing shortages that many public safety departments face today.
“Drones bring a workforce multiplier factor to any entity that uses them because of the large area they cover in a short amount of time,” Fox said. “You're able to gather so much data that humans would not be able to do themselves by using this technology.”
Departments like Cincinnati Police Department and Franklin County Sheriff’s Office have already integrated the technology. Cleveland and Dayton have purchased first responder drones and are working to get their own programs off the ground.
But Fox said it is a great resource that can be adopted beyond the state’s major metros. Rural areas, who cover large areas with little staff, could benefit the most from the technology, he said.
“Down in Appalachia, there'll be some command and control, which is the ability to talk to the drone and have it receive instructions,” Fox said. “Our goal is to be in a mixture of communities across the state.”
Privacy concerns
But the program has sparked concern from civil liberties organizations, like the ACLU of Ohio.
The organization’s legislative director Gary Daniels said he’s worried about “mission creep”. The drones may start with providing departments with analyzing emergency situations, but there’s no guarantee it would stop there, he said.
And while many departments have internal protocols in place to ensure privacy, Daniels said there’s no legal protection for Ohioans against drone surveillance.
“The big overall problem here in Ohio is we really have zero laws at the statewide level and almost none at the local level, too, to govern the use of drones in a way that would give Ohioans more confidence that they're not being used to surveil their whereabouts.”
Fox said the Ohio Department of Transportation has an internal policy to screen drone data for personal information and remove it before sharing with other organizations. He said public safety departments will also host community forums before integrating drones.
There could be statewide regulations soon. A bill aiming to address surveillance concerns is making its way through the legislature. HB251 would require a search warrant to use drones beyond disaster responses, traffic investigations, border security, research and “exigent circumstances.” It passed in the House this November.
“We're working with our legislature to build a framework as this new technology comes online to protect people's privacy as they're deployed,” Fox said.
