In this Tech Speak minisode, the Science and Technology Directorate reports from a field in Mississippi where we tested a new type of drone system—the Bellbird Communications Platform—over the summer with first responders from across the country. With a microphone and a powerful speaker, the Bellbird facilitates important emergency messaging between responders and crowds. Maintaining clear communication without putting people at risk is something that could ultimately help keep everyone safe in challenging situations. Hear from some of the responder evaluators about how this technology meets their needs, as well as S&T Program Manager Brenda Long and National Urban Security Technology Laboratory Test Lead Bhargav Patel about how and why we conduct these types of field tests.
Show Notes
Guests: Brenda Long, Program Manager, Science and Technology Directorate’s Office of Mission and Capability Support, Bhargav Patel, Senior Technologist, S&T's National Urban Security Technology Laboratory, Matt Didier, Lieutenant, Seattle Police Department and Brandon Boren, Sergeant, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Host: Dave DeLizza, Science and Technology Directorate.
[00:00:00] Matt Didier: I was actually surprised at how clear, at max volume, I could hear it when it was a hundred feet off the ground and a hundred feet away from us, because that, in my opinion, that would be an ideal location for when we are working with crowds.
[00:00:12] Dave DeLizza: Hi, I'm Dave, editor for S& T, and welcome to TechSpeak, a mini episode of the Technologically Speaking podcast. We just heard from Lt. Matt Didier of the Seattle Police Department.
Join us at a field just outside of Starkville, Mississippi, where a group of first responders from all over the country gathered on a very hot and humid July day to put a new unmanned aerial vehicle, through its paces.
It's called the Bellbird Aerial Communications Platform, and here is S&T program manager Brenda Long to tell you about it.
[00:00:40] Brenda Long: The Bellbird is a drone platform that has a long range acoustic device on it. Basically a really loud speaker and it has a microphone, so that there can be two-way communication on a large drone so that we can help with crowd control.
A lot of times first responders are trying to disperse crowds in a safe manner, and the megaphone doesn't seem to be enough to get to the full crowd. So what they're doing is putting the platform above and with the long range acoustic speaker, more people can hear. So the front of the crowd can hear it, not just the back.
[00:01:20] Dave DeLizza: The reason S&T brought the responders to Mississippi was to conduct an operational field assessment of the Bellbird technology in simulated and real-world scenarios. Here's Brenda again sharing why this is important.
[00:01:31] Brenda Long: what we're trying to do is, just see the maneuverability of the drone to make sure that it works the way that the first responder would need it to.
[00:01:42] Dave DeLizza: Is it loud enough? Is it clear enough for people to hear? Often there's words that sound a lot alike and it could divert the crowd the wrong way. Potentially, if it's not heard correctly. So the idea is to have very clear messages to the crowd to keep the police, law enforcement and first responders safe. We asked some of the responders about how this technology could support them in the field. Here's Sgt. Brandon Boren of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
[00:02:14] Brandon Boren: I'm assigned to a, it's called technical and surveillance section on my team. We use drones for tactical operations, special events and search and rescue missions, and we've also been creating a drone first responder program in which we support our patrol operations and incident commanders for critical incidents.
My experience with drones is the reason why I'm out here today. Give a good assessment on the technology that's being used and see if this is something that would be a capable piece of equipment for the missions that we have.
I think that this is something that could be a useful tool in the toolbox. There's incidents that you could use this for barricades of a subject that's in a high rise structure, or you need to get on the rear side of a residence to be able to make sure they hear the commands and the instructions inside the structure there. A vehicle barricade, you don't want to get officers too close, so you could bring this out to where the vehicle is and make the announcement perfectly clear so that the suspect that's inside the vehicle could hear it.
There's times when, in search and rescue operations, you've got to actually leave the person on the mountain overnight. This would be a great tool to fly this out and give them instructions, or maybe even drop something to them to give them some sort of a survival thing for overnight, but at least they have clear instructions of what they're supposed to do, so that they can be rescued the next day. So there's definitely quite a few options that this does give us, and I think it's a great tool to have to put in the toolbox.
[00:03:29] Dave DeLizza: And here is Lt. Matt Didier again.
[00:03:35] Matt Didier: I'm here to assess the capabilities of the speaker and microphone-mounted drone for use in crowd management situations to see if it's a viable tool to properly and effectively communicate with crowds so that we can have a better interaction and less police involvement for situations that require our action inside the crowd. Any quality communication with the crowd in general, assists us and those tools that can help us get that communication are necessary for that.
I was actually surprised at how clear, at max volume I could hear it when it was a hundred feet off the ground and a hundred feet away from us. Because in my opinion, that would be an ideal location for working with crowds, because it's keeping us away from the crowd for safety of the crowd, but also not allowing for the drone to be targeted by anyone who would try to knock it out of the sky, but having that standoff, but still being able to deliver a clear message while 80 plus decibels of noise was going on around me. I didn't think we'd be able to do that.
[00:04:35] Dave DeLizza: The field exercises were executed by S&T's National Urban Security Technology Laboratory, or NUSTL. As test lead, Senior Technologist Bhargav Patel was on hand to collect responder feedback, and he explains why we conduct OFAs like this one.
[00:04:51] Bhargav Patel: The operational field assessment focuses on figuring out whether or not the prototype that we funded that the technology developer made is suitable for the environment it plans to be operated in and effective enough to achieve the overall mission.
NUSTL is one of the five labs that falls within the Science and Technology Directorate. Our lab serves as a technical advisor to first responders, primarily at the state and local level, but we also really support the components as well. And a big aspect of that is by conducting tests and evaluation on emerging technologies and trying to get to the ground truth of how these technologies work and whether or not they are going to be effective for first responders to use out in the field.
[00:05:32] Dave DeLizza: Let's give Brenda Long the last word.
[00:05:35] Brenda Long: I like this program because we're helping first responders. First responders often don't have what they need. So I'm proud to be part of this because I want to help them, protect them. To protect me, to protect us as a country.
[00:05:53] Dave DeLizza: S&T works for and with first responders to arm them with technology to accomplish their important work and validate that new tools like these perform as needed. This has been TechSpeak. Thank you for listening. Learn more about Bellbird and our field test on S&T's website and by following us on social media at DHS SciTech. D-H-S-S-C-I-T-E-C-H. Bye!