County police defend drone first-responder program, cite 80% first-on-scene rate and public dashboard

Montgomery County police officials briefed the Kensington Town Council on May 13 on the county's Drone First Responder (DFR) program, saying drones have already become a regular part of rapid response and that the department publishes flight information on a public dashboard.

Sergeant Chris German, who supervises the air support unit, said the first DFR site launched in October 2023 in Downtown Silver Spring and that the Wheaton site now covers most of Kensington. "In 2025, the drone responded to 567 calls for service," he said, adding that the drone was first on scene in 456 of those events, "so that's an 80 percent first-on-scene rate." He also said the unit "cleared 74 calls," meaning the drone arrived and the incident was resolved without a patrol response.

German described operational safeguards the department uses to address privacy concerns: "When we're flying to and from calls, the camera is pointed at the horizon at a 0 degree angle. So as we're flying to and from calls, we're not looking down at any backyards or anything. We're flying straight to the call. Once we get to the call location, that's when we can pan the camera down and start utilizing the zoom." He emphasized that panning down occurs only when officers have a law-enforcement objective on scene.

On endurance and equipment changes, German said newer dock-based drones will maintain similar time-on-station (about 35 minutes per sortie in favorable weather) but will recharge in automated docks rather than rely on rooftop battery swaps. He warned the docked system means more structured recharge cycles: "The new ones land in a dock, and the dock closes on top of it and charges up the battery itself," he said, noting staff will manage coverage through multiple drones per site.

The department described altitude and regulatory limits that shape operations. German said older platforms were operated with a 380- to 400-foot floor and ceiling where permitted, while the new platforms will operate under an FAA waiver with a 200-foot ceiling and an ability to stay at least 50 feet above the highest nearby structure in dense downtown areas.

German also described routine communications and interagency coordination: drone crews operate on police dispatch channels under the call sign "Raven," deconflict with manned police helicopters on the same dispatch channel, and provide thermal feeds to fire-rescue commanders when requested. He said drone pilots monitor live 911 feeds and can geo-verify caller locations to speed response.

The county maintains a public transparency dashboard that posts flight paths at a 100-block resolution with an event number and a non-exact address for each DFR flight. "Once they do a DFR flight and land, it uploads automatically to this dashboard," German said. He told council members a press release and further rollout details would come as the county expands the program to additional sites, including another Silver Spring location and a Germantown site.

Why it matters: officers say drones free up patrol officers by responding quickly to calls and locating subjects from the air; in 2025 German said the drones helped return 136 officers to service and located 267 subjects from the air, numbers he framed as efficiency gains for an understaffed department. Councillors asked about privacy, flight ceilings, coordination with helicopters and fire-rescue, and where and how residents can see flight records; German pointed them to the public dashboard and said staff will share expansion plans in a forthcoming press release.

The council did not take a formal vote on the drone program. The department took questions from residents and council members and offered to provide additional public outreach about what the dashboard displays and how privacy is handled.