My name is Garret Hultgren. I am a patrol sergeant with the Longmont Police Department in Longmont, Colorado. I helped start our agency’s first drone team in 2017 at the forefront of agencies beginning to use drones in public safety. We were one of the first in Colorado to begin deploying drones in law enforcement and have been highly successful in doing so. My team has netted dozens of apprehensions, hundreds of missions flown, and several notable, high profile drone deployments. These have included deploying drones on an active shooter incident at a grocery store, locating an armed fugitive inside a home who had shot at officers and was waiting in ambush, capturing multiple critical incidents/officer involved shootings on drone camera recording, and many successful apprehensions in conjunction with our K9 team. We deploy drones at a patrol level for incidents such as fugitive operations, missing persons, burglaries, and more. We have successfully intregrated our drone team with our SWAT team and now deploy on almost all SWAT incidents for pre-deployment scouting/overwatch or to use a drone to clear the interior of a home prior to officer entry. I have personally flown over 150 public safety drone missions and can share many lessons learned in the use of drones in dynamic settings. I am recognized as a subject matter expert with the Rocky Mountain Tactical Team Association and teach a tactical drone course for the Rocky Mountain region each year.
In addition to law enforcement, I also own Altitude Hobbies which I started in 2011. I was one of the first businesses in the U.S. to start selling early generation drones. I am currently a dealer for DJI, Autel, Teledyne FLIR, Parrot, Inspired Flight, and other popular drone companies on the market. I’ve sold equipment to NASA, the Canadian Department of Defense, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Airbus, Disney, Johns Hopkins University, Note Dame University, and numerous other professional entities around the world including many police and fire departments in the U.S. who trust me as the products I sell are the same products I have battle tested in the real world. I have flown radio controlled airplanes and drones since 2002 and was nationally sponsored by leading RC companies when I flew competition aerobatics.
I have attended the Commercial Drone Expo in the past and found it to be a valuable resource in the public safety realm as well as other industries where drones are utilized. I feel my experience in operating drones and knowledge of the drone industry would make me a beneficial addition to a panel discussion at this year’s expo.
