Montgomery County police told the Maryland House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 15 that the county’s “Drone as First Responder” (DFR) program is intended to provide rapid aerial support for 911 and officer-generated calls, arriving in some areas in about 60 to 75 seconds and supplying live video and direction to officers on the ground.

The briefing explained why county officials say the program matters: drones can give officers earlier situational awareness in emergencies, help locate missing people at night with thermal cameras, and in some cases allow the department to resolve incidents without dispatching a patrol unit.

“We are pre-positioning a drone stationed on the roof of a building to fly to a call for service and arrive prior to or in conjunction with first responders on the ground,” said Commander Jason Kokinos, who described the program’s operations. He said the county operates a centrally located “operations room” that monitors Live 911 and dispatch data and can send a drone without waiting the minutes it otherwise takes to process and dispatch a patrol unit.

Montgomery County Chief of Police Mark Yamada, who took command July 1, 2024, said the department began a pilot in November 2023 and has since nearly reached 2,000 missions across pilot and expanded sites. Officers reported that in the program’s service areas, roughly 15–16% of drone deployments have been handled without sending a patrol officer to the scene, and that more than 280 calls were managed this way as of the briefing. Kokinos said those outcomes have freed officer time for other duties and sometimes helped de-escalate incidents.

County presenters described specific operational safeguards: drones are deployed only to in-progress or safety-related calls (not noise complaints, parking complaints or routine patrols); the camera is pointed toward the horizon while en route and only focuses and records when on scene; the county does not equip DFR drones with audio-recording capability or integrate facial recognition for DFR operations; and all missions are logged on a public dashboard within 24 hours.

“We do not use drones for lawful First Amendment activities such as protests,” Kokinos said. He added that video collected by drones is retained, tagged and managed under the county’s existing evidentiary and public-records procedures and that the county mirrors drone retention to policies used for body- and in-car cameras.

Lieutenant Tony Galladora described community outreach and federal approvals. He said the program operates under FAA Part 107 rules and has waivers allowing beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations in parts of the county and specific approvals to operate within flight-restricted zones near Washington, D.C. He said every DFR officer is a certified remote pilot and completes a 40-hour basic drone course plus continued monthly training and supervised field flights.

County officials described current and planned coverage: operational DFR sites include Silver Spring, Wheaton and Gaithersburg/Montgomery Village, with a fourth Bethesda site near operational. Presenters said sites were selected using call-volume data and community input and that further expansion would require approval by the county executive and county council.

Officials identified costs and technical limits. Kokinos said last year’s DFR budget for the initial sites included a major contractor expense — about $600,000 to provide a human rooftop safety monitor at each site — because FAA requirements tied to operations in the flight-restricted zone required a person on the roof. He said forthcoming FAA waivers for flights below 200 feet could remove the need for the rooftop contractor and substantially reduce operating costs, and that battery life (roughly 50–55 minutes per flight) and weather remain operational constraints.

Chief Yamada said the county posts flight-level data, incident descriptions, and map traces on a public dashboard and fields requests for briefings from civic groups, schools and businesses. “Every mission, every flight is recorded. You can see the map exactly where the drone goes, how it came back, how long it was up, the type of the call,” Kokinos said.

Committee members pressed on retention, costs, coverage and limits. Kokinos said non-evidentiary drone video is subject to a minimum retention schedule and that the department is transitioning from a 210-day retention toward roughly one year for routine footage. On costs, Kokinos said operating expenses and the number of contractors made the program more expensive in its first year but that rule changes and more automated drone docks could reduce recurring costs substantially.

Officials emphasized the program is designed to be reactive: drones launch only after a qualifying 911 call or at the request of an on-scene officer; the county said it does not perform routine aerial patrols. Kokinos and Galladora said an external third-party analysis and ongoing community engagement are planned as part of program assessment.

The committee did not take legislative action during the briefing. Officials said future expansion will be guided by county elected leaders, community input and federal aviation rules.