A municipal administration in South Africa has announced the launch of a drone first responder pilot project.
The Kouga Municipality in the Eastern Cape province says integrating drone technology into its first response operations will help improve public safety as well as emergency and disaster response.
“This innovative initiative harnesses cutting-edge drone technology to improve emergency response, enhance situational awareness, and protect critical infrastructure,” the municipality said.
“The pilot project, running until mid-May, will establish a 24/7 drone network across Kouga. Equipped with thermal imaging, live video streaming, and GPS tracking, the drones will provide real-time data to emergency teams, ensuring faster and more effective responses to crises such as wildfires, floods, and search-and-rescue operations.”
In this project – which is initially scheduled to run until May this year – will be carried out with the help of personal safety technology developer UrSafe Technologies.
The California-based company has an app that alerts authorities and close relatives at the click of a button should a person feel unsafe or there has been an emergency. So, what they did with the Kouga Municipality was to integrate the new DFR system into the app, such that an alert will trigger the drones into action from the Incident Command Centre in Humandorp.
“The app integrates seamlessly with Kouga’s existing safety measures, including the Incident Command Centre, body cameras for law enforcement, and community safety applications.
“Beyond emergency scenarios, the drones will assist in infrastructure surveillance and proactive disaster prevention.”
After the initial run until May, the municipality says it should have established a network of drones across the whole Kouga region using patented software that can handle emergencies at all hours of the day.
Executive mayor Hattingh Bornman praised the project as building on the municipality's long-standing dedication to public safety and proactive disaster management, and cementing his municipality’s reputation as a pioneer in public safety in South Africa, complementing previous achievements like the panic application with video functionality for residents, body cameras for officers, and the establishment of the incident command centre.
"Previous initiatives, such as our highly regarded Fire and Rescue Services, Disaster Risk Reduction Programme, and Community Safety Partnership, have laid the foundation for this technological advancement,” Mayor Bornmann said, adding that the drone-led safety initiative sets a new national benchmark for integrating technology into emergency services.
"With the integration of drones into our emergency response capabilities, we are enhancing existing programmes and setting a new benchmark for how technology can save lives.
"This step forms part of our continuous effort to provide exceptional services to our community," Bornman said.
UrSafe Technologies Director, Stuart Riddle also attended the launch and was keen to underline the game-changing role of drones in emergency operations and the DFR's unique capabilities.
"While drones and body cams are not new, the UrSafe initiative stands out by integrating personal safety, law enforcement enhancement, and the ability to deploy drones as first responders under one patented technology umbrella," he said.
Lying approximately 80 kilometres of the provincial capital Gqeberha, Kouga has a population of about 108,000, and boasts of a coast, parts of which are major tourist attractions.
They would be the first institution to actually identify their drone-based public safety initiative a DFR project; and we think they would be right, in that their intention is to have a drone responding to emergency calls first before humans and other infrastructure can be called into action.
But a similiar project has been running in the Table Mountains in Cape Town for a few years now; although the tendency for the search and rescue professionals at the Western Cape Emergency Services Department is to call in the drones as a last resort, to help with the search for lost hikers.
Additionally, since January last year, Czech Republic company GoodAI has been working with Community Crime Prevention (CCP), a non-profit organisation in the Hout Bay seaside suburb of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, as well as drone services company Integrated Aerial Systems to use drone technology to keep the local community safe.