Published Feb. 2, 2026

In a significant upgrade to public safety, the City of Dearborn is deploying its Drone as First Responder (DFR) program to augment and support officers responding to calls.

Under the DFR program, aerial drones, produced by Skydio, can be launched from strategic locations to any part of the city within 2.5 minutes and provide critical information to officers during a variety of incidents including violent crimes, traffic crashes, missing persons, and vehicle and property break-ins.

The realtime footage will aid in improving decision-making, reduce uncertainty, and help officers respond more safely and effectively to complex, fluid situations and emergencies.

Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin stated, “This program will enable us to assess situations almost instantly when someone calls for help. By supporting our officers in real-time as critical situations develop, it acts as a force multiplier, ensuring we cut down on response time, allocate resources appropriately, and provide robust service every time.”

The technology will also help the Dearborn Police Department increase de-escalation by helping officers assess threats before entering environments, thereby decreasing use-of-force likelihood and resolving calls safely for all involved.

The Department will utilize the DFR program to assess situations and allocate personnel appropriately when calls can be resolved remotely, freeing officers to attend to higher priority incidents.

Dearborn is the first city in the state to deploy this program at full-scale. The Department will make flight data publicly available through a dashboard to further transparency.

DFR will also assist City in many other critical capacities, including:

• Infrastructure surveys, construction progress documentation, illegal dumping assessments, and right-of-way monitoring.
• Aerial inspection of rivers, drains, culverts, and flood-prone areas during rain events.
• Damage assessment after storms, fires, or large events, allowing faster resource deployment and eligibility documentation for state/federal assistance.

Dearborn Police Department’s investments in state-of-the art investigative and response technologies have yielded year-over-year decline in violent crimes and traffic injury incidents. More information can be found at the Department’s Transparency Dashboard.

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