How Drones in Public Safety Went From "That's a Toy" to 1,000 Programs | Matt Sloane

How Drones in Public Safety Went From "That's a Toy" to 1,000 Programs | Matt Sloane

From Security Cocktail Hour by Joe Patti and Adam Roth

April 6, 2026 · 59 min · Episode 74

About this episode

Matt Sloane discusses the evolution of drone programs in public safety and their implications for national security and operations.

Matt Sloane has spent 13 years in the drone industry, working with over 1,000 public safety agencies to build and operate drone programs. As Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of SkyfireAI, he's at the intersection of drone operations, AI-enabled autonomy, and national security policy. In this conversation, Matt covers how drone first response (DFR) programs are changing 911 operations, why the FAA's upcoming Part 108 framework will prioritize autonomy over human pilots, how counter-UAS mitigation actually works (with memorable stories from the Super Bowl and World Cup preparations), and what he told the White House about the Chinese drone ban's impact on American public safety agencies. Supply chain risk from Chinese-made drones mirrors the Hikvision and Huawei debates. Counter-UAS involves signal jamming and RF detection. Autonomous drone systems are expanding the attack surface in ways most security programs haven't accounted for yet.

People in this episode

Hosts: Joe Patti, Adam Roth

Guest: Matt Sloane

Topics covered

  • drones
  • public safety
  • AI-enabled autonomy
  • national security policy
  • counter-UAS
  • drone first response
  • supply chain risk

Keywords

  • drones
  • public safety agencies
  • drone first response
  • FAA Part 108
  • counter-UAS
  • signal jamming
  • RF detection
  • autonomous drone systems
  • supply chain risk

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SkyfireAI, FAA, Hikvision, Huawei

Places: White House

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