Skydio, a leading U.S. drone manufacturer, and Axon have announced that public safety agencies flying Skydio drones and using Axon's digital evidence management platform, Axon Evidence, will now have the ability—via an early access program—to automatically upload photos and video captured on their drones to Axon Evidence.
"Drones hold the promise of massive positive impact for public safety, but the time spent physically transferring and manually cataloguing photos and video footage from drones into a digital evidence management system is time consuming and error prone," said Skydio CEO Adam Bry. "As part of Skydio's strategic partnership with Axon, we’re excited to unveil this critical next step in helping public safety agencies quickly and easily organize their data via this new integration with Axon Evidence."
Earlier this year, Skydio and Axon announced a strategic partnership, including a joint roadmap of integrations between their products. This weeks announcement marks the availability of the first of those integrations, for evidence management, which will be available to select agencies via an early access program. Public safety agencies that currently use Skydio drones and deploy Axon Evidence for evidence management can apply to participate in the early access program. The Axon Evidence integration is expected to become widely available within a few months.
“With this latest integration, Skydio drone-captured imagery will be easily manageable and shareable for agencies, living alongside corresponding body and dashboard camera video footage providing a more comprehensive picture of the situation,” said Axon Air General Manager Aydin Ghajar. "Skydio's leading position in autonomous flight aligns with Axon's vision of providing public safety agencies with the latest technology to enhance response times and offering first responders solutions that provide a safer, more effective method of gaining situational awareness and gathering evidence.”
With this integration, the Skydio drone will automatically and securely connect to Wi-Fi when plugged into a power source, at which point the system will automatically upload any new photos or video recorded to Axon Evidence, tagging them with the pilot’s name and additional data necessary for entry into evidence, ensuring a secure chain of custody and removing the administrative overhead from officers and staff.
In the coming months, the Skydio and Axon Air teams will continue to collaborate on new offerings, including an integration with Axon’s real-time operations platform, Respond, that will enable command staff and 911 dispatchers to access livestreamed views from on-the-ground body and dashboard cameras alongside Skydio drones, providing a more comprehensive picture of an incident. Additionally, Skydio will offer an integration with Axon Air powered by DroneSense, making it simple for a law enforcement agency to track pilot time and drone usage across their Skydio fleet.
To learn more, visit: https://www.skydio.com/axon-partnership