Today’s unmanned aircraft systems — better known as drones — can be programmed to accomplish a slew of important jobs. In fact, drones are poised to radically improve many public safety applications, from fire departments using drones with sensors to locate people trapped by fire, to rescue teams sending drones to locate lost hikers in our vast national parks — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Drones themselves are already highly sophisticated and largely commodity technologies. What makes a drone application special are the sensors, software, flight services and data analytics that users bring to bear.

Drone technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, but organizations are still only scratching the surface of what these devices can do. For business and IT leaders who are unfamiliar with the technology, drones might seem like the domain of hobbyists or the military. But advanced features — such as high-resolution cameras, heat sensors, artificial…

In a busy mall, someone drops a bag and walks away. How long will it be before security staff notice? And when they do, how long will it take police to identify the person who dropped the bag if it turns out to contain something dangerous, such as a bomb? With a video surveillance system,…

Businesses, governments and other organizations worldwide were on track to spend more than $4.5 billion on drones in 2018, IDC estimates. That demand won’t plateau anytime soon, with spending continuing at a compound annual growth rate of 36.6 percent through at least 2021. The catch? When technologies are this new and this hot, enterprises typically…

FirstNet. 4K. 5G. Drones. These are just a few examples of the numerous emerging technologies that every public safety agency will have to consider in the coming years. As the business lead for strategic markets at CDW, I work with fire, police, emergency medical services and other agencies to help them understand their options, which…