Public Safety Information Center

The Public Safety Information Center is a citywide resource designed to keep our community safe. It serves as a centralized hub where city staff can coordinate and share real-time information about natural disasters, like fires and floods, missing persons, severe traffic crashes, large-scaled community events, and imminent life-safety threats, like active shooter situations and other violent crimes. The center is supported by the existing Drones as First Responder (DFR) program combined with software that enhances timely situational awareness and lead to more efficient, informed and safer response. The center will begin its centralized operations in summer 2026.

The center is a unified, cross-departmental effort and commitment to public safety that includes the Boulder Police Department, Boulder Fire-Rescue, Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, Utilities, Transportation and Mobility, Parks and Recreation, and potentially others.

Drone as First Responder (DFR) builds upon Boulder's longtime Unmanned Aircraft Systems team, which has operated drones since 2017. A drone can be sent to a scene to give first responders eyes on the situation within minutes, helping police, firefighters and other responding crews accurately determine the right public safety response and keep community members safe. Drones may support a range of missions, including searches for suspects or missing persons, incident-scene awareness and disaster or emergency response.

The program operates a total of seven American-made Skydio drones stationed at five locations equitably located throughout the city. The drones connect through SIM cards and radios using RF or LTE signal and have an average flight time of about 30 minutes. A trained drone pilot, or operator, is stationed at the Public Safety Information Center where they can view real-time information provided by a drone that has arrived on scene.

Right now, our drones fly beyond the pilot's visual line of sight up to 200 feet. We've applied for a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver that would raise that limit to 400 feet, which can be granted once our Dedrone flight-radar equipment is installed. Flying at these higher altitudes, rather than lower to the ground, keeps the drones quieter and less intrusive for people below, while still giving first responders a clear view of a scene. For reference, that 400-foot ceiling is the same for every drone in Boulder's airspace, recreational or commercial alike. The center uses radar and drone-detection technology to identify other aircraft in the area, which allows the DFR program to operate safely in the air.

No. Deployment is not automatic. A trained drone pilot in the Public Safety Information Center makes the decision during any call for service about whether a drone could help. The drone pilot will prioritize deploying drones in situations where an aerial view is expected to improve safety, efficiency, or both. Drones may be used to support response to lower-priority calls, where a quick aerial check can confirm what's happening and avoid dispatching resources that aren't needed, as well as during high-priority incidents that call for urgent situational awareness.

The City of Boulder takes personal privacy seriously. City drones may not be used for passive surveillance of individuals or groups. A drone responds to a specific call for service or authorized mission and provides situational awareness limited to that incident.

Drones are unarmed and may never be used as a force option. Data collection is limited to the scope of a specific mission. A cross-departmental Unmanned Aircraft System Governance Committee oversees compliance, and periodic audits are conducted to review system access, deployment records and documentation.

Axon Fusus is a public safety technology platform that integrates various data sources, such as body-worn cameras and other information systems. Axon Fusus is currently being used by hundreds of cities and counties across the country to improve technology integration to support public safety.

Boulder Community Connect is the public-facing portal within Axon Fusus that lets residents and businesses choose if, how and when they share video, with transparency, consent and accountability built in. Participation is entirely voluntary; access and permissions can be changed or canceled at any time, and registering does not give the city unrestricted access to any privately owned camera system.

For businesses or community members who would like to opt-in, there are two options:

1. Register a camera. You can register your camera to notify police that a camera is present at a location. Boulder Police can then contact you after an incident occurs to request evidence or information for a specific investigation.

2. Provide direct access during an emergency. You can give the Public Safety Information Center direct and conditional access to a camera feed in the event of an emergency. You can pre-set how and when your camera(s) are accessible to the department. Registered cameras appear on the Fusus map in real time, giving the city fast access to nearby footage during and after an incident.

Access to the technology is tightly controlled. Permissions are assigned based on job responsibilities and limited to authorized, qualified personnel. Every video request and view is governed by city policy and tracked within complete, secure audit logs. Video, imagery and other data are stored and retained in accordance with department records-retention schedules and applicable state law, and evidence is handled under established department procedures. Consistent with the city's commitment to transparency, records may be made available to the public in accordance with applicable public records laws. In addition, the flight logs of each drone can be viewed publicly on Skydio’s website after each deployment.

Yes. The City of Boulder will be hosting several visits to the center later this summer and early fall for interested community groups, business partners, city council, members of the media and youth from our community. The center is still in its early stages of being stood up; the carpet is being installed in June! If you’d like to be added to our list to be informed about future events that involve a tour of the center, please sign up here.