The Washington County Sheriff's Office launched a trial program on Feb. 20, 2026 to test the use of drones to assist first responders with emergency calls. The program uses two drones made by Skydio, one of which is shown here at its docking station in Aloha on Feb. 17, 2026.
Courtesy Washington County Sheriff's Office
Last month, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office began testing drones to respond to traffic crashes, crimes or other emergencies deputies might be dispatched to following a 911 call. Skydio, a California-based drone manufacturer, has provided the county with two of its drones and the “Drone as First Responder” software platform that it markets to law enforcement agencies across the nation.
A team of sheriff’s deputies who are FAA-certified drone pilots have been assigned to work on Washington County’s DFR trial program, which is expected to end in mid-April. The pilots work in shifts listening to incoming emergency dispatch calls. A pilot can respond to a call by remotely launching a drone, which has a range of roughly three miles, from its base in Aloha to the scene of an emergency to collect evidence or assess a crash site minutes before the arrival of deputies or other first responders. The DFR drones have responded to more than 90 calls for service since Feb. 20.
Matt Frohnert, a lieutenant in the patrol division of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, joins us to share more details about the program.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office has sent drones out as first responders more than 90 times in the last three weeks. This is part of a pilot program. The office wants to see how drones work in response to crashes, crimes and other emergencies that are called in through 911.
Matt Frohnert is a lieutenant in the patrol division of the sheriff’s office, and he joins us now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.
Matt Frohnert: Thank you.
Miller: You’re using Skydio, it’s a California-based company that’s already gotten more than 1,000 agencies around the country to use their drones as first responders. Can you describe how the system works?
Frohnert: Yes. Washington County Sheriff’s Office has used drones for quite a few years, so we’ve had a lot of experience with that. But they’ve been vehicle deployed, a lot of times it’s referred to as line of sight drones.
The drone as a first responder is a different process. The drone itself launches from a controlled, enclosed base that the deputies will initiate for it to take off and fly to a scene or incident that they predetermine that’s within a three-mile radius of wherever that drone is stationed.
Miller: That’s how far the drone can easily fly?
Frohnert: Yes, to maximize your flight time once you arrive to the incident, the suggestion is three miles. The maximum capacity is longer than that, but you’re gonna really degrade fly time once you get there, your battery has to have enough to get back to base.
Miller: So if you’re going 10 miles away, then it can’t be used once you get there, for example?
Frohnert: Correct. They’re saying never extend, even in the most ideal conditions, past five miles. Three is kind of the safe zone, because just like an aircraft or an automobile, the weather has an impact on the battery life. So wind, rain, all of those factors take more battery.
Miller: What kinds of calls have these drones been sent out for in the last three weeks?
Frohnert: They’ve had a variety of them and they’re all ones that fall in line with current Oregon law. Oregon is a state that has quite a few protections and limitations, depending on which piece you’re looking at. We’ve flown on traffic accidents – that is a big focus and we can talk about that.
Miller: Let’s start with that one. What’s the scenario? How did that work?
Frohnert: So traffic accidents come into your local dispatch center in one of three ways. Obviously, there’s “traffic accident no injury,” a lot of times referred to as a fender bender. You have “traffic accident injury,” where there’s suspected or known injuries of people.
Miller: Like someone calls and says, “I was just in an accident, and the person who we crashed [into], they’re bleeding and not responsive.” They call that into 911.
Frohnert: Yes, or they call [and say], “I was just in a crash.” “Are you injured?” “No, but…” to your point, “...looks like somebody is or my passenger is,” or “I’m bleeding.” All sorts of scenarios. Now, with the advancements of technology, there are phones, watches, all sorts of devices that automatically tie into the 911 dispatch center.
Miller: When the accelerometer in your watch all of a sudden notices an immediate drop in speed, it could send an alert.
Frohnert: Correct, and those are built in. It started back in vehicles – OnStar I think is one of the first types of things. They come in with no communication other than a crash is detected.
Miller: So all of this has been in operation for a while. And in the past, if you call into 911, then the dispatcher says, “we’re gonna send patrol vehicles” or “we’re gonna send EMT.” How is it different to send a drone?
Frohnert: I just wanna finish that one little piece because it comes in as a “traffic accident unknown injury.” So the two biggest focuses we’re gonna have with the drone system is injury and unknown. To your point, law enforcement, fire, ambulance are all going to converge on that accident to help people because we believe they’re injured.
Miller: And they’re gonna hopefully get there quickly,
Frohnert: Hopefully get there quickly. That’s the light siren scenario and everybody’s coming from the closest around. Well, the drone does that a little bit differently. It gets to fly direct, there’s no roadways that it follows, it just follows the skyline. Our average response time has been anywhere from 45 to 120 seconds for the drone.
Miller: How fast is it going?
Frohnert: Maximum speed is about 45 miles an hour and it’s direct.
Miller: And this is within a three-mile radius and that’s faster, I imagine, than an ambulance?
Frohnert: A lot faster. And that’s faster than sometimes a fire engine. If it’s in the bay, can it even clear the bay? That’s important.
Miller: So let’s say it does that, it gets there well before the ambulance can get there, it’s not going to do CPR. What can you find out from that drone in the air?
Frohnert: So the pilot that’s in a different location than the drone even launched from is going to be able to relay over their law enforcement issued radio information they’re seeing through the drone. We could expedite things, we could put lifelight on standby because we’re seeing serious level of injury. Or, as a scenario we did have, it came in as a “traffic accident unknown,” fire’s coming in what we call code 3, lights, sirens, law enforcement’s coming, lights, sirens, ambulance, the same. The drone gets there and says they’ve already pulled off the road, they’re in a parking lot, looks like they’re exchanging information. And this is being relayed by the pilot to all of those responders. “You can slow down and it doesn’t even look like we need to respond. It’s a minor crash.”
Miller: If those EMTs or deputies are gonna be slowing down, how dangerous can it be for them to be going quickly through city streets on the way to an incident?
Frohnert: It is often overlooked, but many would say it’s probably the most dangerous thing that a law enforcement officer or firefighter is doing on a daily basis. When we’re driving lights and sirens, we’re as safe as we possibly can. There’s so many factors. We can’t control other drivers or going through lights. It’s very dangerous. So anytime we can slow people down, get them to normal driving rates – whether that’s police, fire or ambulance – it is safer for the community, it is safer for the individuals in those vehicles, the law enforcement or fire.
And, for an example of fire, if we get there and the EMTs are not needed, they don’t need to leave the fire station. That’s an incredible cost savings for them. And they’re still ready to go for the “real emergency,” if you will.
Miller: So we started with a traffic crash. What about another sort of category of case uses, which would be some kind of suspected crime or pursuing a suspect?
Frohnert: One of the justifications for our flights – and this is handheld or the DFR program – is we have to suspect a crime or life safety. So, if we believe that a crime has been committed, we will fly to that. And again, similar type thing, depending on the suspected crime, we may need more than one law enforcement officer, a lot of times we’ll refer to as cover or backup. The drone can get there oftentimes before the first deputy. They’re gonna again relay intelligence to the responders.
There is somebody who just robbed a convenience store. The store operator called it in and said, “this person just robbed me …”
Miller: And this is not a made up scenario. This happened? Can you tell us the story?
Frohnert: This is not a hypothetical. There was a large name convenience store that had called in that somebody had just stolen a bunch of items. Our dispatchers are great, they get as much detail about the suspect as possible and they air it over the radio: “We’re looking for an individual that is this tall, last seen wearing these clothing items.”
Miller: And this is within the three-mile radius, so you can send out your drone?
Frohnert: Within the three-mile radius. The drone is already clearing and headed that direction. It shows up and the pilot, over the police radio, is in relay: “Right now, I see someone walking down this section of street at this intersection that meets the description that we were given by dispatch.” A deputy calls, “I am half a block away, I’ll route that direction.” They were gonna come in from a completely different direction into the convenience store to get statements and things like that. They took a different route, popped up, intervened and started interviewing the individual.
Miller: And in this scenario, it’s possible that without that drone, it might have been harder for your deputies to actually find that person. That’s the thinking?
Frohnert: Absolutely, absolutely. For as convenient as things like TriMet are and people get in cars, they drive away … If they happen to do that and the drone shows up in that 45 seconds, we can then give that intel, “they got into a white car with the license plate that reads ...”
Miller: Is video or audio footage from these drones saved? And how is it stored?
Frohnert: It is. So first thing, one important piece, is when the drone is in flight to a location, our setting is that the camera is pointed at the horizon at all times until it arrives to the area in which we’ve pre-designated.
Miller: In other words, they’re programmed right now to, in getting to a scene, also surveil the rest of Washington County that they’re flying over?
Frohnert: Correct. The setting would have to be overridden by the pilot. When it gets there, the gimbal will move [the camera] down.
Miller: I bring this up because there have been concerns about license plate readers – we’ve talked about this in the show a couple of times in the last six months – and data being shared with third party companies, data being accessed by federal agencies. Who has access to this data?
Frohnert: Well, in this particular scenario, someone who the administrator within the Washington County Sheriff’s Office gives access to – that’s it. So even if we have a problem in our system and we have to have, let’s say, a Skydio rep help us problem solve …
Miller: Again, that’s the California company that provided the software and the hardware.
Frohnert: Correct. I, as an administrator, would have to grant them temporary access into the system and I get to decide what it is they would have access to. And it wouldn’t be videos, it would be, “Where’s our problem? Come in and tell us how to overcome this challenge.”
Miller: So how successful overall would you say that this pilot has been so far?
Frohnert: It’s been very successful. It’s a big learning curve that we’ve had to learn a lot, but it’s been very successful. I believe this program is making people safer; my staff, as well as the community at large.
Miller: What would it take to scale this up to cover the whole county?
Frohnert: To cover the entire county would take probably partnerships with other public safety entities.
Miller: The big city police departments like Beaverton or Hillsboro would get their own? I guess I’m just wondering, with two drones in Aloha, how many [drones] are you thinking you would need? What would scaled up look like?
Frohnert: There’s certain areas within the county that really it would not be needed for [like] the very far west end. It’s about 738 square miles. There’s some rural areas that just wouldn’t meet that need. In our assessment, we would say three to four what they call “hives,” which would be two to three drones per hive, or two to three docks per hive, would substantially cover the most populated areas of Washington County. That would include Beaverton, Tualatin, Bethany area and Hillsboro.
Miller: Matt Frohnert, thanks very much.
Frohnert: Thank you.
Miller: Matt Frohnert is a lieutenant with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
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