The FAA’s YouTube channel has a recording of a recent event where a panel of public safety experts discussed best practices for small electric unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. If you’d like to watch the video for yourself, it’s embedded below, but if you’d like to read my recap, scroll further down.
The panel consisted of:
- Kerry Fleming, FAA (Special Operations Support Center) SOSC Manager
- Mark Colborn, Retired Reserve Senior Corporal Dallas PD’s Air Support Unit/UAS Squad
- Mike O’shea of the FAA Resources Bureau, former DOJ working on law enforcement aviation
- Richard Fields, the Los Angeles City Fire Department, led the drone program
- Scott Harris, FAA Special Agent for Law Enforcement Assistance Program, USAF Reserve
What do they wish they knew when they started?
The first question the panel asked was what people wanted them to know when they first started establishing public safety drone support programs.
The host started with Mark Colborn, who started the Dallas PD drone program. He says that when they first started out they picked the wrong drones and it turned out to be an expensive lesson with infrared cameras. Why? Because they were in a hurry. He feels they probably should have asked for more “ancillary equipment” such as vehicles to drive the drones around, support equipment, video streaming to incident commanders, etc. In other words, having the right equipment is a big deal. issue.
Richard Fields, of the Los Angeles City Fire Department, said they were lucky to start slowly building the program to make it more sustainable. They quickly learned that they needed more than they thought, and learned that they needed a long-term plan to keep the program running. Communicating with everyone within the department, other agencies and the FAA was also a challenge.
Michael O’Shea, of the FAA, says he tells people starting new programs that the FAA is there to help, and that the FAA can connect them with people who know the ropes. Sometimes they suggest that an agency that is getting started partnering with other agencies that have a more established program. He also points them to good online FAA resources that help public safety authorities learn about legal requirements, licensing, etc.
Scott Harris, the FAA’s Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) agent, said the FAA is trying to help local and government agencies get their share of the drone issue. There are approximately 30 LEAP agents located throughout the United States that law enforcement officers can reach by emailing [email protected] or by calling 844-FLY-MY-UA and requesting LEAP. The FAA is here to help law enforcement understand drone enforcement. LEAP also does a lot of outreach and training, both for drones and manned aircraft.
Kerry Fleming of the FAA Special Operations Support Center (SOSC) also supports local drone programs. I personally worked with SOSC on a project I did with New Mexico DOT. When government agencies need quick permission to do something unusual or that requires a waiver, they can often give you that special permission if they can determine that it can be done safely. They are a good point of contact for agencies that need to act quickly if the Drone Zone or LANC can’t give you permission quickly enough to do something against the normal rules.
Having SOSC on speed dial is definitely a good best practice for public safety and other government drone operators.
They also advised contacting FSDO (Flight Services), other public bodies with established programs, and their state governments.
What best practices should agency drone operators consider?
Mark Colborn (Dallas PD) said departments should definitely communicate with the public and get their support. City council, county commissioners, media and others all need to be communicated. He also recommends taking drones seriously. It’s easy to forget they’re planes and get in trouble. Drones are usually an extra job for police officers, but in Dallas they have full-time drone operators in their department. He recommends that.
He came back later and said they wanted to have a policy first, including a target for the drone people.
Richard Fields (LA Fire) said he agrees with Mark, especially about taking it seriously. He also recommends standardization, especially when there are so many desks in an area (his area has 31). Making sure everyone is aligned helps to collaborate and work safely. Work relationships are another big one (and given my graduate research, he’s definitely right). The more people know each other before something goes wrong, the more useful and safer drones will be. Finally, he says drones should be seen as force multipliers rather than replacements for manned operations.
Do Public Safety Officers Need to Get Part 107 Certificates?
Michael O’Shea replied to this. He said public safety agencies don’t necessarily need to get a 107, but they should have a public safety aviation program that includes drone operators. Such a program must have documented training for the safe operation of an operator in the airspace. In most cases, the Part 107 is the easiest way to do that, even if you’re flying under a COA instead of 107 rules.
A COA is a certificate that public safety programs can go through rather than establishing a 107-based program. In addition, COAs can be granted for special situations (via SOSC) to get more permissions and approvals outside the normal rules. If a department does not use COA and uses 107 operators, they can also get exemptions through SOSC.
Richard Fields (LA Fire) added that he thinks the 107 is “very, very, highly recommended” even if the agency wants to fly under different rules.
Mark (Dallas PD) added that Dallas has adopted a NIST drone proficiency test that requires operators to fly around to perform tasks such as looking into buckets. They obviously have their 107, but it also helps people build muscle memory to operate from the inside out. This is not mandatory, but he thinks it is a good standard to train people in this. Dallas also does annual qualifiers.
Where can drones be useful in ways that manned aircraft are not?
Another question they answered was where drones offer unique capabilities.
Richard Fields (LA Fire) said his area already has helicopters, but they are very expensive to use. This leaves capacity gaps, both in terms of cost and pilot fatigue. Drones can often send images to multiple people, while helicopters cannot. In a wildfire, helicopter pilots dropping water can’t see much, and drones can meet that requirement.
Dallas PD’s Mark Colborn said drones help a lot in protests. The recent protests following the Supreme Court’s recent abortion decision sparked a great need for aerial surveillance, and drones saved a lot of money while providing comparable assistance. But we have to remember that drones can only do a part of what helicopters can do, so nobody will be out of work here.
They discussed a few more things at the end, which you can check out above, but I think the group gave some great ideas on how to set up and run a public safety drone program.
Featured Image: A screenshot of the FAA panel discussion on YouTube (embedded here).
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