Public Safety & Security Drones

Location: Watergate Bay, Cornwall, UK (coastal festival site)
Duration: 5 days (August 2024)
Attendees: 60,000 people across multiple stages and camping areas

Technical Approach: Flying from a high vantage point near the festival, the M350 RTK live-streamed aerial footage directly to the event command center and organizers. The wide-angle lens provided an overview of crowd movements and traffic, while the 200x zoom camera allowed operators to focus on individual incidents or disturbances from a safe distance. After dark, the H30T's thermal and starlight night-vision modes activated, spotting heat signatures and activity in low-light conditions. The drone's feed was displayed on big screens for decision-makers, and its laser rangefinder could pinpoint distances for units on the ground.

Operational Outcomes: As Sergeant Chris Linzey of the drone unit noted, with the drone "we can see a large area of the festival footprint from a single location and then use that imagery to direct units"—provided a "strategic advantage" in keeping the event safe. Festival producer Sam Watkins said the drone's live feed helped them "move around stewarding and security, and see problems evolve ahead of time." The result was a smoother, safer festival with no major incidents, validating the use of DJI drones as force multipliers for event security.

Context: During weeks of protests following national events in 2020, Fort Wayne Police Department faced dynamic crowds over a wide downtown area, with potential for violence, property damage, or clashes. Monitoring crowd size, movement, and locating agitators in real time was extremely difficult with ground units alone. Officer safety was also a major concern in the dense crowds.

Technical Approach: Over an 11-day period, FWPD flew up to 5 drones simultaneously, accumulating 878 flights and 153 flight hours to maintain an unbroken eye in the sky. From ~200 feet above, the drones tracked protester movements across the city. Commanders could observe crowd size and shifts, detecting if groups were growing or dispersing. Using the zoom and thermal cameras, operators identified potential instigators hiding within crowds and even spotted "spotter" individuals relaying police positions to protesters. On one volatile night, the team used a Mavic 2 Enterprise's loudspeaker to play a pre-recorded dispersal message when an assembly was declared unlawful—giving everyone a chance to leave before police took action. At night, the drones' thermal imagery helped locate people in dark areas or behind objects, and the spotlight attachment lit up alleyways, rooftops, and parking lots where officers on the ground had limited visibility.

Results & Impact: FWPD credits the drones with helping "identify the supply routes protesters were using" and track where crowds were headed. This allowed police to pre-position resources and prevent surprise flashpoints. Drones also "warned officers on the front lines" when hostile actors were approaching, enhancing officer safety. During the first weekend of unrest, FWPD drones flew 12-hour continuous missions that helped quell violence and guided officers, with no serious injuries reported amid chaotic conditions. Media crews were invited to join the drone command center, and a local news station's pilot even coordinated flights with police—boosting transparency and community trust.

Context: Securing extensive perimeters such as industrial parks, residential estates, or critical infrastructure at night is difficult for human guards—visibility is low, and intruders or hazards might not be noticed until it's too late. Fixed cameras have blind spots, and patrolling on foot or by vehicle is slow. Security personnel are also at greater risk during nighttime confrontations.

Solution Architecture: 24-7 Drone Force in South Africa integrated DJI Matrice drones with DJI Dock stations on client properties to enable round-the-clock automated patrols. These drones (secured in weather-proof charging docks) can take off on a schedule or instantly when an alarm is triggered, using theirthermal cameras and AI to investigate the scene. Through platforms like DJI FlightHub or FlytBase, multiple drones can be centrally managed and even operate Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS), covering large properties without direct pilot control on-site.

Technical Implementation: On a protected site, DJI Dock stations are placed to cover different zones. At night, drones launch on pre-programmed patrol routes skimming 50–100 meters above the perimeter, scanning for any heat signatures or movement. The thermal camera highlights a human or vehicle as a bright blob even in total darkness. If an intruder is detected, the system's AI flags it and auto-tracks the target, while alerting security operators at the command center. The operator can then take manual control, use the drone's spotlight to flash a warning, or even issue a spoken warning via loudspeaker. In a real-world case, a remote desert facility's autonomous drone launched within 30 seconds of a perimeter alarm and intercepted two intruders in the dead of night—thermal images captured them, causing the suspects to flee before they could reach the facility.

Results & Impact: The South African security firm achieved 99% system uptime and performed over 1,200 patrol flights in the first phase of deployment, covering extensive residential estates nightly with minimal human intervention. This resulted in faster response times, greater coverage, and improved threat detection compared to traditional methods. By centralizing drone operations, the company reduced the need for dozens of roving guards and cut false alarms (since drones verify triggers before alerting on-site teams)—leading to significant cost savings for clients alongside better security. Thermal drones have caught intruders that evaded other sensors: spotting thieves hiding on dark rooftops, detecting a group attempting midnight cable theft by seeing their footprints in grass via residual heat, and identifying "suspicious thermal activity" 18 hours before a scheduled human patrol would have passed by, enabling an intervention that prevented a cross-border smuggling attempt.

Organization: StormPoint is a volunteer search and rescue organization that responds to disaster situations globally. Their core problem was that disasters expand the search area quickly, and volunteers cannot cover terrain efficiently, especially under time pressure and poor visibility. The pre-drone challenge was slow coverage and fatigue, plus the reality that teams often have to choose between speed and thoroughness.

Adoption Challenge: The drone adoption challenge in volunteer contexts is usually sustainability. Batteries, maintenance, pilot training continuity, and mission logging all have to be handled without a full-time staff. StormPoint solved this with standardized kits, a training ladder, and simple mission checklists that reduce cognitive load under stress. This approach allows new volunteers to onboard systematically rather than learning on-the-fly during high-pressure missions.

Operational Implementation: DJI enterprise drones equipped with thermal capabilities and mapping software became the foundation of their SAR operations. Thermal scanning helps identify where ground teams should focus effort by detecting heat signatures of missing persons even in dense foliage or low-light conditions. Overhead mapping helps track what has already been searched, preventing duplicate coverage and ensuring systematic grid coverage. Battery rotation discipline maintains continuous operations during multi-day search missions.

Impact: The outcome is faster area coverage and better prioritization. Thermal helps locate individuals in low-light and challenging terrain that would take ground teams hours to search. Grid logging ensures no areas are missed. Volunteers can sustain multi-day operations with standardized procedures, making the program repeatable and scalable as new volunteers join the organization.

Context: Bentonville Fire Department in Arkansas faced a common challenge in industrial hazard response: the hazard is often invisible from the ground, and conditions can change quickly. Before drones, responders either guessed about conditions, waited longer for information to trickle in, or approached areas that might have been unsafe. This presented high risk to personnel safety during chemical spills, structural fires, gas leaks, and other industrial incidents.

Integration Challenge: When adopting drones, a common challenge is integrating the drone operator into the incident command rhythm. Bentonville FD solved this by treating the drone feed like another sensor input, with clear rules for who watches it and who is allowed to request flight repositioning. The drone operator became part of the incident command structure rather than a separate unit.

Operational Use: DJI thermal drones provide situational awareness by monitoring hot spots without requiring firefighters to enter danger zones. Thermal imagery with high enough resolution allows incident commanders to interpret risk areas—identifying hotspots in structures, detecting gas leaks via temperature differentials, and confirming whether a zone is safe enough for ground teams to enter. The defined handoff from drone operator to command decisions ensures tactical information flows efficiently during time-critical incidents.

Safety Impact: The outcome is safer decision-making and improved situational awareness. Thermal supports monitoring dangerous conditions without exposing firefighters to unnecessary risk. Clear handoff protocols between drone operator and command enable rapid tactical adjustments. Post-incident documentation workflows provide video records for review, training, and investigation purposes. The drones fundamentally changed how Bentonville FD assesses industrial hazards, keeping responders out of danger while maintaining operational effectiveness.