Nashville police begin testing drones to respond to emergency calls

ScreenshotMetro Nashville Network

MNPD is testing out using drones to respond to calls for the next 45 days at the Madison precinct.

Nashville’s police department is trying drones to respond to emergency police and fire calls.

Beginning Tuesday, the Metro Nashville Police Department is employing a “Drone as First Responder” trial program, which will run for up to 45 days. The program will operate within a 2-mile radius around the Madison Precinct.

The drones will be controlled by public safety personnel who have received training from the Federal Aviation Administration. They will be used in response to emergencies, criminal investigations, missing person cases and significant traffic crashes.

Police say they will not be used for monitoring or general surveillance.

“The major benefit is the amount of time it takes to arrive on scene,” Chief John Drake said in a video promoting the test program. “It’s like a minute to two minutes. Drones don’t have to deal with traffic. They can get to a scene and get you all the information that you need quickly. It’s a very good tool and it doesn’t burn a lot of jet fuel to achieve our goals.”

MNPD’s response time has been the subject of some debate in recent years, after a 2023 analysis by the Community Oversight Board found that shooting response times had tripled between 2020 and 2023. A subsequent recalculation done by the department itself countered that estimation, showing that response times had increased, but not by as much as the COB’s analysis demonstrated.

In his annual budget release this year, Mayor Freddie O’Connell said the department had lowered response times countywide by roughly 10 minutes over the last year.

The drone program also comes during a period of skepticism around police surveillance technology. Over the last few years, Nashville’s Metro Council has rejected surveillance technology contracts, and enacted guardrails for such contracts.

According to MNPD, the drones do not use facial recognition software and footage from the devices will not be shared with immigration authorities.

Nashville is not the first city to use drones to respond to emergencies. The approach dates back to at least 2018 in Chula Vista, Calif. MNPD notes that drones are in use locally in Mt. Juliet and at Vanderbilt University, as well as at police departments nationwide, including in San Francisco, New York City, Oklahoma City and Los Angeles.