Arapahoe County sheriff’s office briefs Centennial on fire‑weather app, drone beta and ‘blue envelope’ program

Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office representative Jacob Lehi briefed the City of Centennial council at its Sept. 9 study session on several ongoing public‑safety initiatives, including a county fire‑weather app, a drone first‑responder pilot and a ‘blue envelope’ program intended to help people with communication needs during police contacts.

“We are in development of the Arapahoe County fire weather app,” Lehi said. He described the app as a predictive tool that will display temperature, dew point, wind speeds, fuel moisture and a likelihood‑of‑ignition score for locations across Arapahoe and neighboring Adams counties; the office said the app is in beta testing and that officials will share a link when testing concludes.

Lehi described a drone pilot launched from the top of City Hall that is being flown remotely by FAA‑certified deputies. He said the drones have about a 20‑minute flight time, have been used successfully at traffic collisions on Arapahoe Road and for 911 calls in Districts 3 and 4, and are intended to provide “eyes on scenes prior to law enforcement arriving.” Lehi said command staff can log into the system in real time and that the office posts drone flight locations to its website. “We are not taking pictures or looking at anything, except getting to the incident location and then, moving back to the target location,” he said.

Lehi asked the council for permission for the sheriff’s office to use the City of Centennial logo on two projects: an unnamed 25th‑anniversary project and the countywide blue envelope program. Mayor Pico and council members gave a verbal thumbs‑up at the study session.

Lehi described the blue envelope program as modeled on other Colorado efforts (he mentioned Boulder) and intended to help residents who want to provide officers with key information—identification, vehicle registration, insurance or other pertinent data—during an interaction. The office plans a launch at the end of the month with a county press conference in October and hopes to make envelopes available at City Hall and partner locations; Lehi said Aurora will run its own blue envelope program and the offices are working to make envelopes interoperable across agencies.

Council members asked about outreach and distribution; Lehi said the sheriff’s office public information officers will coordinate messaging with the city and local school districts and that pickup points (libraries, City Hall lobby) are being considered.

Ending: Lehi said beta testing will continue and officials will return with results; the council gave consent for logo use and no formal municipal ordinance or vote was required at the study session.