- Joined
- Jan 17, 2018
- Messages
- 94
- Reaction score
- 43
- Age
- 51
- Location
- Memphis, TN
- Website
- www.rogercotton.com
As we move forward with our COA and implementation of drones (I really hate that word) into our fire department operations here in Memphis, we're starting to look at ways to educate the public.
We already have 911 calls from people wanting the police to come because "someone is flying a drone and taking my picture." ... or "someone is trespassing on my property with a drone." ... or "Someone is flying a drone in the neighborhood and I don't want them spying on me." Y'all know the drill. Not that they called the cops on us ... just calling in general because citizen is flying a drone and they are paranoid.
For those of you using drones in public safety, how have you educated your citizens that we're using them in operational response, and we're not spying on them. We're thinking about 30 second PSAs that can be aired on local networks and pushed to social media. We're also thinking of press releases to the media and inviting them to do stories on the program and let the media educate the public on our behalf.
Should we paint all our drones red so the public knows they are fire department drones, and not the neighbor kid? I mean, you'd think the big smoke column and 15 fire trucks would give them a clue that maybe the drone in the air is part of that scene ... but ... these are the same people who call the fire department all the time saying the street is on fire, every time the utility company does a smoke test of the sewers ... and the utility workers are standing right there, and they put flyers on every door in the neighborhood the day before.
Curious what other departments and organizations have done.
We already have 911 calls from people wanting the police to come because "someone is flying a drone and taking my picture." ... or "someone is trespassing on my property with a drone." ... or "Someone is flying a drone in the neighborhood and I don't want them spying on me." Y'all know the drill. Not that they called the cops on us ... just calling in general because citizen is flying a drone and they are paranoid.
For those of you using drones in public safety, how have you educated your citizens that we're using them in operational response, and we're not spying on them. We're thinking about 30 second PSAs that can be aired on local networks and pushed to social media. We're also thinking of press releases to the media and inviting them to do stories on the program and let the media educate the public on our behalf.
Should we paint all our drones red so the public knows they are fire department drones, and not the neighbor kid? I mean, you'd think the big smoke column and 15 fire trucks would give them a clue that maybe the drone in the air is part of that scene ... but ... these are the same people who call the fire department all the time saying the street is on fire, every time the utility company does a smoke test of the sewers ... and the utility workers are standing right there, and they put flyers on every door in the neighborhood the day before.
Curious what other departments and organizations have done.