Oklahoma City PD – 2024 Aerial Achievement Award Winner – Program Excellence

Oklahoma City Police Department has achieved remarkable progress and scale with their drone program over the past few years, and recently became the first agency to successfully run a dock-based drone as a first responder program at the Oklahoma State Fair in September 2023 and again in 2024. The immense work Captain Bussert and Sgt. Dax Laporte have done to reach this stage of their drone program speaks to their passion for drone use in public safety to improve community and officer safety with the help of innovative technologies.

Incredible successes to mention for this nomination include:

• Using a docked-drone to provide additional overwatch while pursuing an active shooter at Oklahoma State Fair
• Providing overwatch during a tense situation with an armed suspect
• Using thermal imagery to locate and apprehend suspects during a nighttime burglary
• Also using drone thermal imagery to locate and rescue a man who was beaten and thrown into a ravine