Birmingham City Council was scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider an ordinance that would formally launch a drone-as-a-first-responder program for police. A drone could reach a scene before an officer, giving patrol units an aerial view of a scene, including the location of people and potential dangers, before anyone in uniform arrives.
According to WVTM 13, if the council approves the measure it would still need a subsequent reading and a final vote before taking effect. The proposal builds on groundwork the city has already laid: Birmingham City Council approved $1.5 million in May 2025 to buy police drones, a purchase that included 16 DJI M4TD aircraft and related equipment, as reported by al.com. That 2025 deal was to be sourced from SkyfireAI of Huntsville, a company formerly known as Atlanta Drone Group Inc.
Council President Darrell O’Quinn made the case for speed at the time of that purchase, telling al.com, “The drone can be deployed to the area in most cases before the police officer can get to that location.” The city later pursued an agreement with Skyfire AI for its Drone as a First Responder program.
What the Skyfire Agreement Actually Covers
The Skyfire agreement covered support for eight drones, along with docks and related accessories, for use in DFR operations by the Birmingham Police Department. The agreement runs for up to three years and authorizes payments to Skyfire of up to $1.5 million total, paid out in annual installments of $500,000.
The dossier reviewed for this story does not clarify how the 2025 purchase of 16 drones relates to the eight drones covered under the 2026 Skyfire support agreement, nor does it specify how many aircraft are currently operational for the department. Tuesday’s scheduled council consideration was the next formal step toward putting a DFR ordinance on the books.
A Working Model Two States Away
Birmingham officials and reporters have pointed to High Point, North Carolina, as a comparison for a similar program. WVTM 13 reported that the program there was set up recently.
Those drones fly out of the department’s Real Time Crime Center and carry spotlights, speakers, and infrared cameras, per the ABC45 report. High Point said its program runs on a five-year contract totaling just over $1.5 million, funded through the department’s own budget. Curtis Cheeks said the program has guided officers to missing people or discarded firearms without needing 20 officers on scene for an extended search.
The potential for drones to track fleeing suspects in real time played out in one High Point case detailed by WXII, where a certified drone pilot kept eyes on a group running from an apartment complex. Officers who responded on the ground recovered three firearms and arrested two people, including a 15-year-old, according to that report.
Researchers Say Benefits Are Still Unproven
The push toward programs like Birmingham’s is part of a broader national wave. More than 1,800 U.S. law enforcement agencies are already using drones in some capacity, according to a 2026 exploratory study published on crimrxiv.com. The same research describes rapid situational awareness as the central perceived benefit of DFR programs, with participants linking it to safer tactical decisions and more efficient use of resources.
That study also found participants believed DFR programs could improve cost efficiency by cutting down on some in-person responses and supplementing officers on the ground, while cautioning that successful rollouts depend on clear policies, stakeholder engagement, the right technology and pilot selection, system integration, and ongoing transparency. Crucially, the study’s authors said their findings reflect practitioner perceptions from only two agencies, and that further quasi-experimental and mixed-methods research is needed to actually quantify how these programs perform.
The regulatory path has also opened up quickly. The Electronic Frontier Foundation reported that as of February 2026, more than 1,000 public-safety agencies nationwide had received the FAA waivers needed to automate drone flights and launch DFR programs, with the agency issuing more waivers between April 2025 and February 2026 than in the previous seven years combined. EFF noted these programs increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to automate drone flights from launchpads placed around a city — and pointed to a Government Technology analysis finding that many deployments in Chula Vista, California, responded to low-risk calls tied to unhoused people, mental health concerns, and loud music, a reminder that how a city actually uses the technology can diverge from its stated purpose.
