Montgomery County Executive Elrich, County Council President Friedson, Police and the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Office to hold Town Hall on the implementation of the ‘Drone as a First Responder’ Program in Bethesda on Wednesday, July 17

For Immediate Release: Thursday, July 11, 2024

Wednesday, July 17

7 p.m.

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School

Auditorium

4301 East-West Highway, Bethesda 

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich and County Council President Andrew Friedson will join District 2 Police Commander Amy Daum and Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Director Peter Fosselman at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 17 for a town hall about the upcoming implementation of the County’s “Drone as a First Responder Program” in Bethesda. The public is invited to attend in-person or online to learn more about the value of this innovative public safety tool, ask questions, and provide feedback.  

The town hall will be held in the auditorium at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, which is located at 4301 East-West Highway in Bethesda.  

The goal of Montgomery County Police Department’s (MCPD) Drone as First Responder (DFR) Program is to provide air support to 911 or police-generated calls for service in a safe, responsible and transparent manner. 

The DFR program is designed to improve police response times, allow MCPD to be more efficient with police resources, provide real-time information to ground officers to allow for better decision-making, assist with de-escalation of incidents to enhance safety for both officers and our community and to assist with locating and apprehending criminal suspects. 

The DFR program consists of prepositioning an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) on top of a building within an operational area. When a 911 or police-generated call for service occurs, the UAS will launch and fly to the scene of the call. If ground officers are still needed to respond, the UAS will stay over the scene until the call is stabilized. At that time, the UAS will return to the launch/landing location. 

There likely will be times when the DFR may be able to discontinue a ground officer response to a call that would allow officers to divert to other emergency calls or law enforcement activities. The DFR program only will respond to 911 or police generated calls for service and will not be patrolling an area or proactively deployed for other reasons such as surveillance.  

The DFR program started in Silver Spring in November 2023 and expanded to Wheaton in February.

 

WHAT: Town Hall on the Montgomery County’s “Drone as First Responder Program” 

WHEN: Wednesday, July 17, 7 p.m. 

WHERE: Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (auditorium), 4301 East-West Highway, Bethesda. Residents can also participate via Microsoft Teams online.  

WHO: 

• Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich 
• County Council President Andrew Friedson 
• County District 2 Police Commander Amy Daum, 
• Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Director Peter Fosselman 

 

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Media Contact: Thomas Dant, 240-550-4020