Skydio dock station housing an Ohio State University Department of Public Safety drone atop the Journalism Building, installed in March. Credit: Austin Gano | John Oller Special Projects Editor
Perched on a concrete slab atop Ohio State’s Journalism Building is a 4-foot-tall, futuristic-looking box standing on two legs.?
With a press of a button, it will open up and spit out a drone, one that has cameras powerful enough to identify a person roughly half a mile away and a vehicle at nearly a mile.
Ohio State’s Department of Public Safety, which includes the Ohio State Police Division, placed these drone pods on the Journalism Building, Blankenship Hall and the WOSU Public Media building in March. They are now a part of the university’s “Drone as a First Responder,” or DFR, technology, university spokesperson Dan Hedman said.
“These are small drones with a camera used only on priority calls to offer faster response times and enhanced situational awareness,” Hedman said in an email. “They put eyes on the scene in under 90 seconds, helping public safety teams de-escalate situations and protect lives.”?
The drones deploy in less than 40 seconds, reach speeds of up to 45 miles per hour and can fly for up to 40 minutes straight, according to Skydio’s website. They are piloted with a controller, browser or autonomously through the use of onboard AI.
Each drone is housed in a docking station, a light gray box about 4.5 feet high, where it can be remotely deployed by an operator, according to Skydio’s website.
University Hall, Sullivant Hall and Ohio State’s Recreation and Physical Activity Center were also considered to house drone units, according to records. The Journalism Building and WOSU Public Media were eventually decided upon, in addition to Blankenship, where Ohio State Police are located.
“Building selection was based on a variety of factors, including geographic location, rooftop clearance and connectivity to data and power,” Hedman said.
A $1.16 million, five-year contract, which began in 2025, includes not only equipment and training to operate the drones, but also licenses for software that can link a police command center to police body cameras and hundreds of CCTV cameras deployed across campus. That’s according to an agreement between Ohio State and Axon, the company distributing the drones and services, which was obtained through a Lantern records request.?
Though installed, the drones are not yet fully operational.
“Testing and training began in August, and training continues,” Hedman said. “To date, flights in a portion of the campus have included testing, training, and increasingly responding to incidents.”
While the drones are used to aid law enforcement, they are piloted by civilian staff in the Communications & Security Technology Division at Ohio State, according to Hedman.
“The Department of Public Safety has two drone programs — one in the Police Division and one in the Communications & Security Technology Division,” Hedman said.? “Non-sworn staff in the communications center pilot the Skydio DFR program drones.”
Drones made by San Mateo, Calif-based, Skydio can identify a person roughly half a mile away and a vehicle at 0.8 miles, according to the company’s website. Each drone features three cameras that allow for wide shots, long-distance zoom and thermal imaging.
The drones are piloted through Skydio Drone as a First Responder Command, a software suite that allows operators to fly the drones manually or send them to locations autonomously, according to Skydio’s website.
Skydio Drone as a First Responder Command also includes a transparency dashboard feature that allows subscribers to select information, which may include flight logs, dates, times and reasons for deployment, if they choose, according to Skydio’s website.
“Give community members, elected officials and oversight bodies one source for program activity, reducing the need to respond to routine information requests individually,” Skydio’s website stated.
Ohio State has no plans to publish a transparency dashboard, according to Hedman.
Ohio State also purchased Fusus, another software package, that creates a “Real-Time Crime Center Platform,” which consolidates available resources onto one screen for operators to view feeds, according to an Axon white paper.
“Reads from technology like automatic license plate readers, gunshot detectors, private security cameras, doorbell cameras, traffic cameras, body cameras and other emergency response platforms are easily interpreted in real time,” the white paper stated.
With this software, operators can view drone and police officer locations as well as camera feeds on an interactive map with overlaid live alerts and additional connected feeds, such as closed-circuit television and body cameras, according to Axon’s website. Fusus can also display feeds from Skydio Drone as a First Responder Command, according to Skydio’s website.
Additional CCTV streams were included in the agreement between Ohio State and Axon. The university has six types of connected feeds, Hedman said.
Fusus’ product card shows it also can connect to Flock cameras and Hanwha surveillance technology, both of which Ohio State already operates. It is unclear whether the university has integrated its Flock camera feeds into its Fusus software package.
“Such information is considered a confidential security record under ORC 149.433,” Hedman stated.
That specific state law dictates what records, such as security, intelligence and infrastructure, are exempt from public disclosure, according to the Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules website.
Owners of private cameras can opt to share access to their cameras with Fusus users to contribute to the dragnet of cameras available on the Fusus map, according to Axon’s website. The university has no access to any private cameras, Hedman said.
