The full story
The Friendswood Police Department will launch its drone first responder program—where drones will be dispatched to arrive on the scene before officers—as soon as late 2025, Chief of Police Josh Rogers said.
The department has used drones since 2019 in more limited capacities. For example, officers could request a drone from the scene if needed or reconstruct accident scenes, according to the department’s quarterly newsletter, On Patrol.
Officers will operate the drones from three different launch locations, including the public safety building at 1600 Whitaker Drive, Friendswood, and two other yet-to-be-determined locations, allowing the drones to get to anywhere in the city's 12.2 square miles in about 60-90 seconds, Rogers said.
In January 2025, Friendswood Police Department began a months-long trial of the drone first responder program. According to the department, the results for 216 hours of testing showed:
- 78 total calls
- 65 calls the drone was the first on the scene
- 12 calls cleared by the drone
The details
The Federal Aviation Administration approved waivers for the department to fly the drones up to two miles from their starting point, according to the newsletter.
“We’d be able to launch [the drone] from here, someone’s manning it [and] seeing what’s going on,” Sgt. Scott Muir said. “Take off, you’re there in 30 seconds and you can give a bird’s eye view of the scene.”
Rogers said the drones will not be used for general surveillance but may be used to observe suspects when serving a high-risk warrant. However, drones could be used to monitor large public events, such as Fourth of July celebrations, Muir said.
The department currently has nine drones. When the drone first responder program goes into effect, it will have a fleet of 10 drones with 12 officers trained to pilot the drones, Muir said.
What else?
Each drone is estimated to cost between $10,000 to $30,000, Rogers said, and the program is expected to cost the department $11,000 per drone dock annually.
The drones are battery-operated. However, one of the drones has the ability to fly 24/7 because it is always powered by a generator.
“The way we’ve distributed our pilots is we have 24/7 coverage,” Muir said. “Every shift, every day, every hour of the day has someone on the table to be able to fly. ... We want to be able to respond as needed with the tools that we have.”
The drones are also outfitted with cameras with zoom and thermal imaging capabilities, McCombs said.
In their own words
Because the drones arrive first, McCombs said they will be able to provide dispatch and responding officers with a live video feed of the area, which helps keep the officers safer and gives them a better, earlier assessment of what’s happening on the scene.
Muir said he hopes having the drones capture on-the-ground realities will better protect officers and help them better understand how to deploy resources in time-sensitive situations, like clearing a scene of a car accident—a task that can take up to several hours, even longer if there is a fatality, where evidence needs to be gathered.
Currently, the department’s response time for nonemergency calls is 12 minutes, which is two minutes below the national average, according to the National Police Association’s website.
“The exciting part is just being able to get there a little bit quicker and probably solve some issues that we weren’t able to solve until we were physically on scene,” Rogers said.