At the South Bend Police Department, drones are becoming a new piece of equipment to address emergencies in the community.
SBPD introduced its new drone program to South Bend on March 12. Called Drone First Responders, the program has already made its first arrest as of March 20. The drones are able to respond to calls two minutes faster than traditional police, according to the WSBT, and are intended to help police respond more effectively to calls.
The drone program is part of an effort to increase response times to emergencies and is intended to help grow the SBPD’s Real Time Crime Center through the use of new technology and assist in both active investigations and crime prevention, according to Capt. Kyle Dombrowski of the Operations Division of the SBPD.
Dombrowski explained that the Drone First Responders allow SBPD “to go to and respond to calls for service at a moment’s notice … So not only to hopefully get video surveillance as evidence, but also to identify if there’s any witnesses, victims, suspects, suspect vehicle, related to that incident.”
The Drone First Responders will not directly work with Saint Mary’s or Notre Dame safety or police departments. That said, the implementation of the drones will impact South Bend and its surrounding communities. Phil Bambenek, director of Saint Mary’s Campus Safety, explained that the drone program belongs strictly to South Bend, but if needed, Saint Mary’s could be opened up for the SBPD or Notre Dame Police Department to do surveillance.
“They’re excellent tools for, you know, getting a sort of an overhead view of what’s going on in an emergency. So, I mean, if something really bad was to happen and they wanted to fly around in order to get ... the 400-foot level of what’s going on, we certainly would embrace it, but that would be a decision being made by the county police, not by the Saint Mary’s,” Bambenek said.
Additionally, the SBPD may station drones directly around Saint Mary’s campus for a variety of reasons. That does not directly affect how Saint Mary’s operates but gives the SBPD space to work.
It is not intended for privacy to be affected by the drones, as they will be used for surveillance of reported crime scenes and emergencies, not with the intent of impacting privacy.
“But yes, we respect everybody’s privacy. There’s certain things where if we need a search warrant, we’ll apply for it. But the way the drone operates is based on calls for service, and that’s what we operate,” Dombrowski said.
Flock Safety, the SBPD’s infrastructure partner for the Drone First Responders, also addressed privacy concerns on its website, stating that it “only activates in response to specific calls for service — never for general patrol or surveillance. Every flight is logged, audit-traceable, and visible via a public-facing transparency dashboard, ensuring responsible use and public trust.”
The Drone First Responders are intended to increase the effectiveness of SBPD and improve safety for everyone in South Bend. Regardless of one’s role in the community, everyone is affected by crimes, and technology serves as a tool to combat them. Still, Dombrowski noted that the drones are only one tool of many, and the reports and voices of individuals are still the most important in improving the SBPD and safety of South Bend and its surrounding communities.
“This is where, you know, South Bend is leading the edge,” Dombrowski said. “South Bend PD, we like to utilize our technology to the fullest, to be the most effective and efficient in towards prevention and enforcement of criminal activity in our community.”
