“If you had the Guardian’s siren tone tuned to the frequency of the speaker, and there was a police car next to it with its siren tone, the Guardian would sound three times louder,” he said.
Seattle-based BRINC now makes drones that are used as part of a growing “drone first responder” (DFR) system in more than 900 US cities, including Laredo, Texas and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Typically, cities pay several hundred thousand dollars per drone per year—contracts reach millions of people with more drones and more capabilities. A year ago in Newport Beach, California, announced a $2.17 million five-year contract with BRINC for seven drones. (According to Forbes, BRINC is evaluated about $480 million last year.)
One existing customer, the Redmond Police Department in Washington state, told Ars that this new model is “a completely new and different airframe.”
“This is a huge step forward in DFR innovation and capability,” police spokeswoman Jill Green said in an email.
Still, Faine Greenwood, a longtime drone watcher and analyst, did not take kindly to the news.
“Even if these claims are true (which I currently doubt), the speed/battery life is an incremental improvement over other comparable drone platforms,” Greenwood told Ars via email. “It’s not a game-changing situation, and I don’t see it as really changing the calculus for cops who are on the fence about drones.”
