Drone Sales Increase in the Face of Public Safety Demand
Still, drones sales were up last year. Deltek recently reported that drones are on the upswing in state and local government purchasing. According to Deltek, bids and requests for proposals for robots and drones increased to 555 in 2022, up from 430 in 2021.
Public safety agencies deploy drones for a wide range of uses. Firefighting and law enforcement turn to drones in dangerous situations such as bomb squad activities and surveillance. “We have replaced people with robots or nonhumans, not to furlough the job but to really tackle dangerous situations,” Deltek Research Manager Paul Irby said in a January presentation.
READ MORE: How municipalities are applying smart city tech to enhance safety.
According to the National League of Cities, drones can “revolutionize” municipal services. “There are many applications for drones within the public sector at the local and state level. Drones can be used for law enforcement and firefighting, as rural ambulances, and for inspections, environmental monitoring and disaster management,” the association notes.
In 2020, The Federal Aviation Administration established a four-year program called BEYOND to partner with state and local governments to study drone flights and their potential benefits to U.S. communities. The eight participants in the program include the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; Kansas Department of Transportation; Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority in Tennessee; Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership in Virginia; North Carolina Department of Transportation; North Dakota Department of Transportation; City of Reno, Nev.; and University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Regarding public safety, Reno reported significant benefits from the Reno Fire Department’s deployment of drones for search and rescue, and North Dakota has embraced the use of drones in infrastructure inspections.