Hot Springs police pitch drone-as-first-responder pilot; board moves item to new business

Police Chief Chapman told the Hot Springs City Board that a 100%‑funded Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing microgrant would let the city pilot a drone-as-first-responder program integrated with the city's CAD/911 dispatch and real‑time crime center.

"This drone is actually responding real time as that information is being put into the system," Chapman said, explaining the drone would be dispatched automatically by GPS coordinates fed from the CAD system and that licensed city pilots could take manual control if needed. He emphasized the system would not use license‑plate reader or facial recognition technology and that video and data would be retained by the city unless shared with another agency by agreement.

Chapman said the drone could respond to priority and nonpriority calls to provide officers with immediate situational awareness—thermal imaging for lost persons, faster arrival than patrol units, and video feeds to dispatch and mobile data terminals. Board members raised questions about oversight, logs, speed and ownership; Director Dodd Smith asked whether there would be a record of every deployment so use can be audited. Chapman replied, "Yes, ma'am. Absolutely," saying dispatch records would show when and why the drone was sent.

Because members characterized the item as a public‑safety priority, the board moved the funding/acceptance item from the consent agenda to new business for a fuller discussion at the regular meeting. No formal acceptance vote occurred at this agenda meeting.