They didn’t graduate from the police academy, they don’t get overtime, but they’re incredibly quick when it comes to getting on the scene after a 911 call.
Data from the Montgomery County Police Department’s dashboard on the “drones as first responder” program shows that overall arrival times for the drones — housed in downtown Silver Spring and Wheaton — average in just over one minute.
From the time of their first deployment in October of 2023 to just after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24, the drones responded to 541 calls, arriving first on the scene — before patrol officers — 382 times.
According to Montgomery County Police Capt. Jason Cokinos, usage of the drones was able to avoid having to dispatch a patrol unit 63 times.
Cokinos, director of Special Operations for the department, told WTOP in an interview: “When someone calls 911, we can hear them talking to the 911 call taker and that allows us to send the drone faster.”
Cokinos said the real-time information that the drones can relay “has proven to be very valuable for decision-making.”
He explained that one 911 caller reported that a man was outside of a 7-Eleven, gesturing as if he had a handgun. Cokinos said the drone was deployed and, “With the camera, we were able to zoom in and see it was a cellphone and he was actually scrolling through social media and then pointing it at people again.”
Cokinos said police were dispatched, but thanks to the information from the drone, the nature of the call was more of a welfare check rather than to deal with a potential threat.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has proposed adding $773,500 to his FY 2025 operating budget to expand the program, adding the hours that the drones are in use in Wheaton and Silver Spring, and potentially adding units to the Gaithersburg/Germantown area as well as Bethesda.
Cokinos noted that the use of the drones has been important since the department continues to be short of sworn officers.
When asked if the use of the drones has been a draw for potential hires, he said, “It has yet to be seen [whether that’s the case].”
“I’ve laughed with a couple of community members that parents have yelled at their kids for playing too many video games, [but] here we are to a point in law enforcement where someone can be holding a controller and flying a drone,” he added.
Montgomery County Council is holding hearings on Elrich’s proposed budget. A final vote must be taken by June 1.
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