by Mark McDermott
From high above, the man could be seen running down a sidewalk in Hawthorne. He hangs a fast left into an alley, then jumps a backyard fence. A dog trots along the side of the house and greets him, because it’s the man’s own home, but he doesn’t pause. Instead, he drops to the ground and quickly digs a hole, into which he drops a gun.
The video was shot by a first responder drone operated by the Hawthorne Police Department, and enabled officers both to find the man — who had allegedly just assaulted his girlfriend with the weapon — and then his weapon. The drone was on the scene less than two minutes after the call for help had gone through dispatch.
The video was played at the February 3 Manhattan Beach City Council meeting, as part of a presentation by MBPD, which successfully sought authorization to implement its own first responder drone program.
“If officers didn’t have any eyes in the sky, they would never know where the firearm went,” Officer Arai White, MBPD’s lead drone pilot, told the council. “We’d be on a wild goose chase. So with this, the drone can basically keep eyes on [the incident], give real time info, and a higher rate of success for capturing suspects. Ultimately, this guy jumps the fence, tries to run away again, and he’s apprehended successfully.”
The council unanimously approved a two-year, $300,000 agreement with Flock Group, Inc. to provide hardware, software, and training for what’s known as a Drone as First Responder (DFR) program. The system will allow MBPD to dispatch drones from the Watch Commander’s Office to assist with critical incidents including 911 priority calls, search and rescue missions, high-risk operations, and public events.
The program marks a significant upgrade from MBPD’s current drone operations, which require manual deployment from police vehicles with on-site pilots and setup time. Lieutenant Justin Hidalgo, who manages the department’s unmanned aircraft systems, explained that the conventional method “provides information only after an incident is already underway, and it has limited impact on initial response time. It’s really a support tool rather than a dispatch response.”
During a 10-hour demonstration day with Flock, MBPD responded to 14 calls for service with an average response time of two minutes and 17 seconds, with the drone arriving first 93% of the time. White noted that those times would be even faster with the Live911 feature included in the agreement, which streams active 911 calls directly to the drone interface in real time, allowing launch even before dispatch creates a CAD incident.
The presentation also featured video from former Redondo Beach Police Chief Joe Hoffman describing how his agency used DFR to apprehend a drunk driver. In the incident, the drone located and confirmed the suspect vehicle’s license plate before officers arrived on scene.
“It allowed the police officers to arrive on scene and identify the vehicle without delay, which subsequently fled from the scene,” Hoffman said in the video. “And there was a short pursuit. The pursuit lasted a couple of miles with the drone following the entire way, until the officers were able to perform a pit maneuver, disable the suspect’s vehicle and take the suspect safely into custody. Without that drone response to identify the vehicle, the vehicle could have been fled and possibly somebody else could have been injured. This is a perfect example of using all the technology that’s available to us in order to safely resolve an incident and minimize risk for the public.”
White cited data from agencies already using DFR. Alhambra Police Department, which established its program in 2019, averages an 83-second response time and has reduced overall police response time by 86%. The drones arrive first 80% of the time and have cleared 278 calls for service without needing patrol resources. Neighboring El Segundo, which launched its program in 2025, has conducted over 400 flights, with drones arriving first 85% of the time and clearing more than 50 calls without patrol response.
Council member Amy Howorth asked what it meant for a drone to clear a call without patrol resources. Hidalgo explained with an example: “Say there’s a transient in the roadway. The drone responds to that area, checks the area, and turns out there is no transient in the roadway. There’s no need to send a patrol officer to that call.”
The department took pains to address privacy concerns. Police Chief Rachel Johnson emphasized the department’s approach to deployment.
“We are very strongly sensitive to the community’s concerns about privacy,” Johnson said. “While yes, can we conduct a sweep of the beach for fireworks or bonfires and things like that? Yes, we can. But just regular patrol, like our officers do, where they’re kind of driving around, you know, hoping for someone fun to talk to, we tend to stay away from that with drones because of the privacy concerns. We do not want our community to feel like the drones are just cruising aimlessly and perhaps invading their privacy.”
Hidalgo pointed to existing department policy 605, available online, which prohibits using drones for mere surveillance or for following people of protected class solely, and bars any personal use.
A key component of the program is a community engagement portal that will log all flights on the city website, showing why the drone was deployed, where it went, the flight path, and the results of the call.
“One of the biggest pieces of this agreement, in my opinion, is that it comes with a community engagement portal,” White said. “Obviously in public safety, transparency is really important. With this portal, you can see all our flights — why the drone went out, where it went, the flight path, the results of the call — all for the public to see any given time on the city website, just a click of the finger.”
The agreement includes three DJI Dock 3 stations initially, with drones capable of flying 47 miles per hour for approximately 54 minutes at a three-and-a-half-mile radius. The cameras can read a license plate from 700 feet and include thermal imaging. Under the agreement’s hardware refresh terms, Flock will swap out the three DJI drones for two American-made Flock Alpha drones around month 18 or 24 of the contract. The upgraded Alpha drones travel faster and farther, fly longer, and have better cameras than the initial equipment.
The $150,000 annual cost will be funded through the department’s State Law Enforcement Services (SLES) Fund. Johnson said the department will start small with one pilot working 40 hours a week, likely on the busiest days at the end of the week, as a proof of concept before expanding coverage.
“We’ll make our mistakes, we’ll go forward, we will see what we need in order to make this more and more robust program and cover more of the week,” Johnson said.
Implementation will take eight to 12 weeks, including planning, permitting, hardware installation, and training. The program will operate under existing department policy and adhere to Federal Aviation Administration guidelines, with Flock assisting in navigating FAA approvals.
Mayor Pro Tem Joe Franklin, who moved approval of the resolution, recalled seeing a demonstration of the technology about two years ago at an Independent Cities Association show.
“You always hear me, I don’t want to be compared to Beverly Hills, but Beverly Hills had it,” Franklin said. “So we had a great demonstration. So thank you for pursuing it and bringing it on board.” ER
