Brooklyn Park Approves $4.6M Drone First Responder Program With Skydio After Legislator Killing

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Brooklyn Park, Minnesota’s City Council unanimously approved a $4.6 million expansion of its police technology contract to implement a Drone as First Responder program, bringing the department’s total 10-year agreement with Axon Enterprise to $12.4 million. The November 10 vote positions the Minneapolis suburb as the latest American city replacing Chinese-made drones with U.S. alternatives amid mounting federal security concerns.

The decision comes five months after Minnesota’s largest manhunt ended in Brooklyn Park’s jurisdiction with the arrest of a suspect accused of killing state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband. That June 2025 incident exposed critical limitations in the department’s existing drone capabilities, accelerating plans for automated aerial response.

Automated Drones to Launch in 40 Seconds

Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley described the DFR system as the “biggest enhancement to public safety” in his 30-year career. The program will deploy five docking stations strategically positioned in high-crime areas, each housing two autonomous Skydio drones capable of self-dispatching to 911 calls.

“If somebody calls 911 and says, ‘Hey, there is somebody breaking into my house, my back door right now, they’re in my backyard,’ that drone would autonomously fly, because we would indicate it’s a crime in progress,” Bruley explained at the council meeting. “Within 40 seconds, many times less, they’re going to have eyes-on by a police officer looking through that drone, looking at the suspect or looking at the situation and then feeding the responding officers real-time information.”

The 40-second response time applies to Brooklyn Park’s highest-crime areas, while drones can reach any address citywide in under two minutes. Chief Bruley characterized the drone technology as a “game-changer in the aspect of how we respond, how quick our response time would be.”

Replacing “Antiquated” Chinese Drones

The Brooklyn Park Police Department currently operates two drones incompatible with the new DFR system. City documents describe these devices as “antiquated” with “ongoing national security and data privacy concerns associated with overseas-produced technology.”

While the city didn’t explicitly name the manufacturer, the description aligns with widespread concerns about DJI drones that dominate 80-95% of U.S. public safety fleets. The new program implements American-made Skydio drones compliant with federal security standards, including 12 total aircraft with 10 housed in automated docking stations.

The Axon contract includes all necessary infrastructure, software integration, and a two-year trial period with no additional costs in 2026 or 2027.

“If the council does not allocate the funds to support it [by 2028], we can get out and we are done with the drone program,” Bruley noted.

If the city commits $4.6 million in 2028, Brooklyn Park receives new docking stations every five years, replacement drones every 2.5 years, access to fixed-wing aircraft when available, and ongoing parts replacement.

Minnesota Joins National DFR Trend

Brooklyn Park joins neighboring Minnesota cities Minnetonka and Plymouth in deploying DFR programs. Minneapolis and Duluth have also considered similar systems. The department has operated drones since 2023, spending approximately $55,000 on its initial program including five aircraft—three small indoor models and two larger outdoor units.

The deadly June manhunt for suspect Vance Boelter demonstrated both drones’ value and their limitations. After Boelter allegedly shot Representative Hortman and her husband at their Brooklyn Park home, officers used both interior and exterior drones during the response. However, the 3-5 minute setup time allowed critical delays.

“If we had that program in place right now, we would have had somebody here at the office when that call came out, they would have launched the drone immediately and within seconds would have been over here and potentially could have caught him leaving,” Officer Aili Gelle told Government Technology in September.

Transparency and Privacy Measures

The Brooklyn Park Police Department website will feature a transparency portal showing when and where drones deploy. Footage captured during operations will only be available to individuals appearing on camera and must be deleted after three days—well within Minnesota’s seven-day retention requirement under state law.

Council Member Nichole Klonowski praised Bruley’s transparency proposal as a “very important piece of it,” while Council Member Christian Eriksen, acting as mayor pro-tem, said he concurred with those describing DFR programs as the “future of policing.” The 5-0 vote proceeded with Mayor Hollies Winston and Council Member Maria Tran absent.

Brooklyn Park has maintained a relationship with Axon since 1999. While the previous contract wasn’t scheduled to expire until 2027, the city secured discounted pricing by renewing two years early. The department’s earlier 2025 agreement provided high-tech body cameras, AI-assisted report writing tools, and guaranteed free upgrades to new Axon products for the next decade.

DroneXL’s Take

Brooklyn Park’s $4.6 million DFR investment exemplifies three converging trends reshaping American public safety aviation: the explosive growth of automated drone response systems, the accelerating replacement of Chinese-made aircraft with expensive American alternatives, and the role of high-profile incidents in driving rapid technology adoption.

The timing is particularly significant. DroneXL has documented a nationwide DFR boom throughout 2025, with departments from Victorville, California to Concord to Oklahoma City deploying automated aerial response. Brooklyn Park’s program follows the standard DFR playbook: Skydio drones integrated with Axon’s ecosystem, strategic docking station placement, and sub-two-minute citywide response times.

But Brooklyn Park’s $4.6 million price tag—substantially higher than Oceanside’s $264,816 pilot program or even Newport Beach’s $2.17 million five-year contract—illustrates the financial burden departments face when federal pressure forces them away from DJI. We’ve extensively covered how Blue sUAS-compliant drones cost three to six times more than DJI equivalents, creating significant budgetary challenges for cash-strapped agencies.

The city’s characterization of its existing drones as presenting “ongoing national security and data privacy concerns associated with overseas-produced technology” echoes talking points we’ve heard from Florida to Arkansas as states mandate DJI replacements. Yet as we documented just two days ago when Sedgwick County replaced their DJI fleet with Skydio X10s, no credible evidence has emerged demonstrating actual DJI data breaches, despite multiple independent security audits finding the company’s claims of robust data protection accurate.

The December 23, 2025 deadline looms large. Under new FCC authority we reported in October, DJI products face automatic import bans unless a national security agency completes a mandated review—and after ten months, no such review has begun. Brooklyn Park’s preemptive switch to Skydio insulates the department from regulatory uncertainty while embracing automation that genuinely enhances public safety.

The June 2025 tragedy that killed Representative Hortman demonstrates how critical incidents accelerate technology adoption. Brooklyn Park operated basic drones for two years before that manhunt exposed the limitations of manual deployment. Within five months, the city committed $4.6 million to full DFR automation—a timeline that would have been unthinkable without the political pressure created by a high-profile failure.

Whether this investment delivers value proportional to its cost remains to be seen. DFR programs show promise in reducing response times and improving officer safety, but the premium charged for American-made alternatives means taxpayers are funding what amounts to a protectionist industrial policy rather than selecting the most capable, cost-effective tools for public safety.

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