Henderson is working to make drones a permanent part of its emergency response after a 30-day trial in which drones beat officers to the scene more than 71% of the time.
The city announced Tuesday, Nov. 3, that it plans to establish a Drone as First Responder (DFR) program, according to a city news release.
The move follows a demonstration period that tested how quickly drones could reach incidents and feed real-time information to officers and firefighters.
On Priority 1 calls, drones arrived first 67% of the time, averaging 3 minutes and 29 seconds ahead of patrol officers. The drones completed 529 flights and provided useful intelligence on 99.8% of them, according to the city.
Another 16.2% of incidents were resolved without sending a patrol officer or fire crew at all.
The city said the technology has applications beyond police response, including fire crews, search and rescue teams, emergency management and infrastructure assessment.
Once fully implemented, the program will operate through the Regional Drone Operations Center at the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center. The city has not announced an implementation timeline.
Funding will come from the federal Homeland Security Grant Program and donations from the Henderson Police Foundation.
