Montgomery County Police announced Wednesday that they have temporarily suspended their first responder drone program in Silver Spring due to construction at the launch site.
MCPD uses drones to assist police officers on certain calls. The drone deploys itself to the scene of the emergency and provides officers with eyes in the sky, typically to track a suspect on the ground. Since the program started in 2023, police have deployed the Silver Spring drone (dubbed RAVEN 3) on more than 1,700 calls, according to publicly available deployment data.
In a public statement, police said RAVEN 3’s suspension is a “necessary safety measure” to prevent problems with nearby construction. In the meantime, RAVEN 3 will be on duty in White Oak. The statement did not give a timetable for the program to resume.
Below is a real police video of how RAVEN 3 helped to arrest a shoplifting suspect in the county earlier this year.
