Drones

A donation of more than $400,000 enabled the county police department to add two new drones to its fleet of seven. Among residents, however, concerns over being surveilled persist.

Entities including an uncrewed aviation company are exploring use cases. Organizers indicate the city’s proximity to training and National Guard drone operations make it a good fit.

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office on Monday arrested the man after he reportedly stole a vehicle from a business in east Fort Collins, set it on fire and damaged nearby agricultural land.

The local police department recently unveiled a new rooftop drone port at headquarters. The agency fielded approximately 10,000 drone flights in 2025 and expects about twice as many this year.

While the city has used drones before, Chief Roderick Porter said the two new aerial vehicles the department is getting under a contract with security tech company Flock Safety are more advanced.

City public safety officials plan to assess drones from a variety of companies this winter and spring, and subsequently ask the city council to approve funding for a lease agreement. The cost of a program is unclear.

Michigan Central in Detroit is quickly becoming a center for air and ground mobility innovation. The state Advanced Air Mobility Initiative, announced in July, aims to stimulate drone development.

A new partnership with drone delivery company Wing and retail giant Walmart aims to have a residential drone delivery service take to the Central Florida airways by early 2026.

Drones can enhance emergency response, but they’re only one part of the public safety toolkit, ideally making the jobs of the officers and first responders safer and more efficient.

The City Council last week approved the contract with Seattle-based BRINC Drones to provide one drone, a launch platform and software for a new drone-as-a-first responder program.

Police officials say they are hoping to integrate drones and data analysis with pre-existing cameras, gunshot detectors and license plate readers that are already in use through Flock Safety.

Energized by a donation, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s drone program now handles everything from search and rescue to fighting blazes and setting prescribed burns.

The Volusia County Sheriff's Office announced that the program will deploy non-lethal drones within seconds after an emergency alert, such as during a school shooting, and relay real-time video footage to law enforcement.

Transportation technology leaders gathered in Los Angeles this week for the annual CoMotion LA conference, where they examined recent innovative endeavors and the issues shaping mobility today.

Police in Gig Harbor, Wash., are the latest Pierce County law enforcement agency to acquire a drone. Plans are for it to assist in areas including missing persons investigations and tracking suspects.

A University of Minnesota project uses drones to examine smoke and then analyze it to understand a fire's flow patterns. It represents a significant step toward using fully autonomous drones for emergency response.

Chippewa County International Airport, in the eastern Upper Peninsula, appears destined to become a drone hub for future flights near the Canadian border. A project there received $400,000 in state funding.

The hub will explore new transportation initiatives while also potentially offering rail service into Toronto, all from Michigan Central, a site that once housed Detroit's passenger train station.