DRONELIFE Exclusive Interview: Flock Safety’s Vision for High-Tech Crimefighting with DFR

Flock Safety brings high-tech crimefighting to DFR

By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill

With two recent acquisitions, Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company that produces high-tech crime-fighting tools for law enforcement agencies, recently signaled a big move into the drone security space. In October, Flock Safety bought Aerodome, a company specializing in drones as first responders (DFR) technology. Then, earlier this month, the company acquired Uniform Sierra Aerospace, a U.S.-based provider of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) for public safety applications.

The two purchases position Flock Safety to take a leading role in the production of drones and related systems in the rapidly advancing field of DFR. Recently the village of Hempstead, New York, the largest incorporated village in the country, announced plans to launch a DFR program for its police department using the company’s Flock Aerodome system.

In an interview with DroneLife, Fritz Reber, Flock Safety’s director of DFR consulting, discussed the company’s plans for growing its DFR business.

The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

DroneLife: How do Flock Safety’s recent acquisitions of Aerodome and Uniform Sierra Aerospace fit in with your company’s mission to employ technology to fight crime?

Reber: I came in with the Aerodome acquisition and my role specifically is related to drones as first responders. Flock Safety’s mission is to basically allow public safety agencies to get situational awareness as early as possible on crimes in progress.

They have already had tools like license plate readers, fixed-camera systems and gunshot detection, and these are all systems that allow public safety agencies to learn what’s happening at the scene of a crime in the earliest possible moments. And DFR, drones as first responders, is the quickest way to get eyes on a situation.

It’s a system of pre-positioned drones that launch remotely and arrive within 85 to 86 seconds of an incident and allow someone back at a real-time crime center or other location to be able to be virtually on scene. They can see what is happening and relay that to those personnel on the ground so that those personnel can respond more safely and more intelligently and with the ability to de-escalate the situation, or sometimes not have to respond at all if it’s not an actual Incident in progress.

DroneLife: You said that you had come into the company with the Aerodome acquisition. What was your position there and how does that differ from your current job?

Reber: When it was just Aerodome, I was initially vice president of strategic initiatives, then became vice president of professional services.

My job description hasn’t really changed too much. Basically, I help customers with getting the regulation capability to do DFR, which requires specific waivers from the FAA. Also assisting them with developing policies and protocols and then also with community engagement in terms of communicating with the community what DFR is, why it’s helpful, what we, the public safety agency, will and won’t do with the tools that we provide them.

DroneLife: Flock Safety has announced that it’s going to be producing a suite of American-made drones over the next 12 months. Can you tell me how many drones we’re talking about?

Reber: So, I can’t share the exact number. That will be designed to match the needs of the agencies of all sizes, from smaller towns and limited budgets to the largest cities. They’ll all be made in the U.S. and they’re designed to exceed whatever needs the first responders have. They’ll be outfitted with features that are necessary and enhance DFR operations, which would include thermal cameras and cameras with high zoom capability.

DroneLife: Where will these drones be produced?

Reber: I think that it’s still too early to discuss that. The acquisition just occurred, so a lot of the logistic issues are still being discussed, but they will be produced in accordance with the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), so that they are compliant and considered U.S.-manufactured drones.  We’ll have additional details to share, on each of the new drones later this year, when we are announcing the launch of them.

DroneLife: Why is it important for Flock Safety to manufacture its own drones?

Reber: Building our own products gives us the ability to decide what features and capabilities they have and design specifically for DFR rather than rely on somebody else’s drones. To build them locally means we control the supply chain, we control the software that’s behind it.

We can ensure the security of the platform. We can ensure the reliability of it. We won’t have to worry about the broader political issues that might impact supply chain issues or security issues. We just feel like we can do a better job than anyone else and so we’re going to make our own drones and make sure that they’re NDAA-compliant.

DroneLife: What is the significance of having your products be NDAA-compliant?

Reber: So that’s a big question. That’s been an ongoing debate, certainly.

We also know that there are discussions around banning DJI drones, which are the largest and most popular right now being used by public safety agencies. And so, we certainly want to avoid any operational risk that that might impact us.

DroneLife: Are all the drones that you’re planning to produce going to go to Flock Safety customers or will you be selling them to third parties?

Reber: If they’re purchasing our drones, they will be Flock Safety customers.  We’re not going to be selling drones to third parties or selling to resellers.

DroneLife: Are any of these drones going to be equipped with your other technology? Are they going to be able to read license plates or detect gunshots or anything like that?

Reber: It might be a bit early to discuss the specific capabilities that will be deployed on the drones. Certainly, all those are being considered for capabilities. But I don’t think any final decisions have been made in terms of the capabilities.

I think over time, we will decide which capabilities we’ll add on as the product develops. The basic initial capabilities will be a strong camera, both night and day camera to be able to see what’s happening, and then [artificial intelligence] capabilities that would assist with responding to certain locations.

We get the incoming data from trigger alerts like 911 calls, [license plate reader] hits, gunshot-detection alerts; all these alerts that Flock gets from the company’s other technologies is ingested into the software and is used to assist in directing the drone to the right location. So those are the initial capabilities. But things like license plate reading and gunshot detections, those types of capabilities on board the drone would be something to determine later.

DroneLife: How will these drones compare to drones that are currently on the market in terms of the features and the price?

Reber: Again, it’s probably too early to talk pricing. The features are going to be specific to DFR in terms of making it the best DFR drone on the market. The key aspects of DFR are the ability to fly within a range that will get you to the scene fly quickly. The speed is important, and then being able to see.

DroneLife: How many law enforcement agencies currently use your DFR systems?

Reber: That’s a fluid number. I don’t have the exact number of DFR customers right now. I think it’s over a dozen, with hundreds in the pipeline. Flock Safety, with our other products, works with over 4,800 law enforcement agencies at this point.

DroneLife: With the company’s recent focus on DFR systems, do you anticipate that you’re going to greatly increase the number of police agencies that that employ your DFR programs?

Reber: It’s rapidly expanding right now. It’s one of the fastest-growing capabilities that public safety agencies are interested in. We’re getting new customers daily.

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Read more:

• Hempstead Police Department Introduces Drone-As-First-Responder System from Flock Safety
• Flock Safety Acquires Uniform Sierra Aerospace: Enhancing Drone Technology for Public Safety
• Flock Safety Expands Capabilities with Acquisition of Aerodome

Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.