CINCINNATI (WKRC) - It's been a little more than a year since leaders with the Cincinnati Police Department launched the department's newest public safety tool — drones as first responders.
Since then, the department has averaged close to 100 flights per day, launching drones in neighborhoods across the city and monitoring everything from road hazards to homicides.
One year after launching drones as first responders, Cincinnati Police say the technology has transformed how officers respond to emergencies across the city. (WKRC, Provided)
Now, one year into the program, CPD is pulling back the curtain on the operation, giving Local 12 an exclusive look at the results.
"What we have found is that it's exceeded all our expectations," Sgt. Jay Kemme said.
Kemme has been at the helm, piloting the pilot program from the start.
"I think it has absolutely changed the way that law enforcement responds to runs," Kemme said. "When a citizen calls for help and a drone is there in a minute or two minutes and is giving that real-time feedback to the officers, it changes how we respond. It changes how we send resources, it changes everything, and it's made everybody safer. So, with the 22 drones, we cover about 90% of the city. We can respond almost anywhere and have eyes on within two minutes."
One year after launching drones as first responders, Cincinnati Police say the technology has transformed how officers respond to emergencies across the city. (WKRC)
CPD's communications center in South Fairmount is where the drones are remotely operated and their images are observed by pilots.
"At its peak, it's chaos," Kemme said. "You're tracking suspects, you're watching victims and making sure they're safe, and we're coordinating with real-time crime next door, so we're yelling back and forth. So it can get very loud and very chaotic in here very quick."
Kemme said the drones can provide responding officers with critical information before they arrive.
"We can respond with the drone. We can say to the responding officers, one, we can livestream it back to them, right? So, they can see what we're seeing in real time. More importantly, we could get here and say, hey, it's two guys fighting, or hey, there's 50 people fighting, or hey, there's a crowd forming, or ... hey, there's a gun, a knife, right? So, just the situational awareness that we can provide on a run like this."
One year after launching drones as first responders, Cincinnati Police say the technology has transformed how officers respond to emergencies across the city. (CPD)
Some situations require a more urgent response than others, which can quickly be determined by what the drones capture.
"A week or two ago, we had a shooting and the drone was there within 30 seconds," Kemme said. "The shooting happened to be close to where the dock was stationed. And our officer caught a guy coming out of an apartment with an AR-15. We were able to track him. He changed his clothes. We were able to track him through neighborhoods, through the woods, and ultimately arrest him for shooting a female in the stomach."
Of the nearly 11,000 drone responses since the project's inception, a little more than 2,600 of those calls did not require an additional police presence.
That's about 24%, effectively saving the department from unnecessarily deploying resources nearly a quarter of the time.
"So, if you imagine we get a mattress on the highway, right, and somebody calls that in and we send the drone out," Kemme said. "So, the drone goes, we find it. And we have cops there within, I don't know, two minutes, three minutes. And we tell them exactly where it is, right? So, we cut down that response time for that run from 20 minutes to two minutes."
One year after launching drones as first responders, Cincinnati Police say the technology has transformed how officers respond to emergencies across the city. (WKRC)
With the hot-button issue of Flock cameras taking center stage in many local communities, CPD wants residents to know the drones provide a much different service.
"This is calls for service," Kemme said. "So, this is the citizen is calling, hey, I need help. We are launching a drone to help them. This is making them safer. It's making the police department more effective. It's making our responses smarter. And it's been an incredible program that has really changed the way we do a lot of things."
The success of CPD's drone program has led to the department being selected as the first of 12 law enforcement agencies nationwide to participate in a major research study examining the program's effectiveness.
Researchers from Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati will work directly with CPD to evaluate how drone first-responder programs affect public safety, police operations and community outcomes.