Correction, Aug. 2
The City of Gresham is the second city in Oregon to implement the Drone as First Responder program, following the City of Bend. Gresham thanks Bend for their collaboration during this process.
The Gresham Police Department is the first law enforcement agency in the state of Oregon to implement the Drone as First Responder (DFR) program and the 16th law enforcement agency in the country. The program launched July 14, and will continue as a pilot program depending on staffing
levels.
"Without the additional staffing the Gresham Safety Levy would have provided our department, we are having to find innovative ways to be more efficient while keeping our community safe,” said Gresham Police Chief Travis Gullberg.
The drones dedicated to the DFR program launch from Gresham City Hall and are deployed specifically for circumstances which could include, but are not limited to, searching for lost or missing people and crimes in progress.
The drones have the ability to
provide critical information to ground personnel. It is important to note the drones do not record video unless it is necessary for the collection of evidence. The drones deploy with their cameras at a 15-degree angle, meaning, they are aimed straight ahead in order to better locate the scene and they
return to City Hall at the same angle.
The City of Chula Vista, Calif., which implemented DFR in 2018, has recorded the average response time for a drone to a priority one call as three minutes, nine seconds, and the patrol unit on scene as six minutes, six seconds. For priority two calls, they recorded drones arriving on
scene within an average of five minutes, three seconds, and patrol units on scene within ten minutes, one second.
The Gresham DFR program allows an officer to get visuals on a situation in approximately two minutes, which can be almost half the amount of time of a patrol unit response.
“Utilizing the Drone as First Responder program allows our police to respond faster to our community’s needs while keeping our officers safe,” said City Manager Nina Vetter. “Drones have the ability to arrive at a scene within a couple of minutes, which allows our officers to have
their eyes on an incident in record time and can potentially reduce the amount of personnel needed.”
With the failure of the Gresham Safety Levy in May, the City is leveraging technology in order to continue the efforts of the Safe Gresham initiative developed last year.
Learn more about the
Safe Gresham program.