By Police1 Staff
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — The Newport Beach City Council approved a five-year contract for the purchase of seven drones to support the police department’s new drone program.
The $2.17 million agreement with Seattle-based BRINC Drones Inc. was unanimously approved as part of the council’s consent calendar on Feb. 25, the Daily Pilot reports.
The contract covers the cost of the drones, charging stations, necessary software and regulatory approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration. It also includes initial startup expenses.
Six of the aircraft will be BRINC’s Responder drones, which company founder and CEO Blake Resnick described as the “world’s first purpose-built 911 response drone.” The drones are designed to launch from recharging stations located across the city and integrate with computer-aided dispatch systems.
“It’s designed to take off from a citywide network of recharging stations and then hook into computer-aided dispatch,” Resnick said. “So the second someone calls 911, we grab that GPS coordinate and then we use it to automatically dispatch an aircraft to that location. So we can respond to 911 calls with this technology in tens of seconds.”
Five of the drones will be stationed at strategic locations throughout Newport Beach, with civilian detectives at the newly established Crime Information Center operating them. A sixth will be available for patrol officers. The seventh drone, a smaller and more maneuverable model, is designed for SWAT and crisis negotiations. It is equipped with night vision, thermal imaging, and 3D mapping capabilities for indoor use.
City staff noted in a report that BRINC offered a 30% discount on its equipment and services. The contract includes provisions to upgrade the drones to newer models in the third and fifth years of the agreement.
The drone program is part of a broader effort to integrate technology into policing. In January, the city launched the Crime Information Center, and in October, 69 automated license plate readers were installed. The readers continuously scan for and alert officers to suspicious vehicles.
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