That all changed in the fall of 2016, when the landmark Part 107 rule clearly defined requirements for commercial operations in the US, effectively making skies open for business.  Soon after, the FAA began issuing thousands of drone permits per year.

Since their first use in the mid-1800s, drones have been used for photography, security, safety, and environmental applications. However, warfare is responsible for paving the way for the drone technologies we have today. Military units across the globe were among the first to recognize the benefits drones could provide to wartime strategies and began working to expand the industry.

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"I think it has greatly enhanced our operation and made us more effective as an agency by solving crimes or, as my crime analysts say, preventing crime."

In 2018, companies around the world, from the U.S., to China, to Israel, began  investing funds to research drone use for things like taxi services, photography, and indoor applications.

After World War I, companies worked to push drone technology forward with inventions like the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane and the Kettering bug, an unmanned aerial torpedo. Most efforts during this time were completed by the military up until 1935, when actor and model-airplane enthusiast Reginald Denny became the first civilian to develop a remotely piloted vehicle.

"The improved recording and investigation has led to a rise in detections, particularly people being charged, summonsed and cautioned."

In 1915, Nikola Tesla wrote about unmanned aerial combat vehicles. The first attempt at a self-propelled drone as an aerial target was completed in 1916 by A.M. Low. It wasn’t until World War I that the first pilotless torpedo was invented by the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company.

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Upgrades included with support. World-class technical support. Project managers with policing experience. Learn why our customers regularly describe NicheRMS365 as the most stable system in their operation.

Even as the consumer drone market exploded and reduced the cost of drone technology, enterprises were reluctant to scale their drone programs. The FAA’s long term rules for commercial use and their implications remained uncertain, and the risk of investing was perceived as too high.

"Electronic tasking means...improving the quality and speed of providing victim and witness case progress updates and less internal chase-up enquiries.”

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NicheRMS365 is designed to meet the demands of large agencies, including connecting neighboring agencies for information-sharing consortiums.

NicheRMS365 easily interfaces with other policing technology, eliminating interruptions so officers and staff stay focused on their mission.

"I think it has greatly enhanced our operation and made us more effective as an agency by solving crimes or, as my crime analysts say, preventing crime."

In 2021, the FAA reports that there are nearly 900,000 drones registered in the US alone. That includes a little over half a million drones registered for recreational use.

While the commercial drone space has struggled with regulations over the last ten years, the personal and recreational drone industries have grown under less scrutiny.

In the early years of the war, the U.S. Air Force began using unmanned aircrafts to cut down on pilot deaths over hostile territory. Investment in drone technology continued after the Soviet Union shot down an American spy plane in 1960.

Niche Technology Inc. and its subsidiaries collect and retain personal information only as required for employment purposes, to contact customers and others with whom we have an ongoing business relationship, to manage Niche events, and to deal with requests for information and similar activities. Payment information (e.g. credit card numbers) is not retained beyond the time required to process the payment. Personal information is used internally only as required to manage staff, to manage events and provide support, and to manage external requests. It is shared only with government (e.g. tax authorities), third-party event organizations like hotels (only as required to manage the event), insurance providers, legal consultants, law enforcement and others as required by law. Personal information is never sold or distributed to other third parties.

Not all operations are covered by Part 107. Instead, they require a waiver which people/businesses can apply for. It can take months until the waiver process is complete and waivers and not always approved. Thus, regulation is still a roadblock for advanced commercial operations. Note, there are similar regulations around the world including the UK, EU and Australia.

Niche Technology is the world leader in deploying RMS in large police agencies, and more large police agencies use NicheRMS365 than our top eight competitors combined.

"[We are] now in the enviable position of having one of the most technologically advanced computer systems of any police force in the UK."

In the mid-90s, the U.S. government began The Predator program , which resulted in the MQ-1 Predator, equipped with a Hellfire anti-tank missile on its wings. It paved the way to the MQ-9 Reaper in 2007. The Predator and Reaper drones are what most people today picture when they think of military drones.

The majority of hobby drones, those used by private citizens for non-commercial purposes, are quadcopters, or drones with four propellers. They are considerably cheaper than their commercial counterparts, typically under $2,000 and lacking the sophisticated software and sensors required of their commercial counterparts.

Drones have a bright future as they seep their way into more industries and companies discover more value-adding use cases. The future of autonomous drones is particularly bright due to the FAA’s shift towards streamlining approvals for fully autonomous drone flight, mainly with its new type certification (TC) program for drones. With this dramatic change, a reliable drone solution can undergo a series of thorough testing to prove to regulatory bodies that it can operate safely in specific, complex situations. With this roadblock removed, autonomous drones will be implemented at much larger scales across consumer and commercial industries alike, helping bring about a safer, greener and more efficient and productive future.

Any formal access to information request sent to Niche Technology must contain sufficient information to allow Niche Technology to verify that the requestor is authorized to receive the information in question. However, before pursuing a formal request, particularly for police-related data, we recommend that the requestor contact Niche Technology informally as it is almost certain that Niche Technology does not have the information being sought, or is not legally permitted to provide it.

By the late 1960s, the U.S. government had invested in and used drone technology throughout Vietnam and to aid in naval missions, though most of these missions were classified.

Contact one of our drone experts today to learn more about our advanced drone solution and keep your critical infrastructure and assets protected and your workers safe.

Police Information and Evidence Management Manager, Niche Implementation Lead and Business Process Change Manager, Regina Police Service, Canada

Informed by military research and development over the previous 150 years, the first use of drones for non-military ventures started in 2006, the same year the Federal Aviation Administration issued its first commercial drone permit.

In modern uses, the word “drone” refers to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In other words, aircraft that don’t require an onboard pilot in order to operate. For our purposes, technologies in the drone sector will be broken down into two categories: drones that require a human operator to guide their missions and autonomous drones, which do not.

This growth has been fostered in part due to the 2021 approval by aviation regulators in the U.S of the first fully automated commercial drone flights. This meant approved companies could have drones operating without anyone controlling or monitoring it onsite.

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Agricultural and industrial sites were the first two main markets for commercial drone use. Drones were used to manage crops and carry out inspections. Due to tight margins in the agricultural market, other industries such as utilities, renewable energy, mining, drone deliveries and port and sea terminals have since outpaced it in terms of adoption.

By the time of the first US congressional hearing on the issue in 2015, only 13 permits had been approved in nearly 10 years.

Yet when drones first emerged on the market, they were strictly used for military purposes. Let’s take a look into the history and uses of drones since they were first used to get a clearer picture of how the industry expanded to what it is today.

It wasn’t until the 1980s and 90s, that the U.S. military began heavily investing in the technology. The U.S. Department of Defense awarded the AAI Corp and Israel-based Malat contracts in the 90s to develop more advanced drone technology, which resulted in more cost-efficient technologies.

Despite these major advancements in technology and regulation, it would be another decade before the commercial drone industry would truly take off.

"The improved recording and investigation has led to a rise in detections, particularly people being charged, summonsed and cautioned."

"Because [Niche] has incorporated modern technology throughout their product design, we feel that they are well suited to meet our as yet unknown future needs."

Today, over three-dozen countries  and multiple terrorist groups and non-state actors have  weaponized drones in their arsenal.

During World War II both Allied and German forces used drones to train aircraft gunners and aid in missions. After the end of World War II, drone developers began using jet engines in technologies like the Australian GAF Jindivik and the Model 10001, built for the U.S. Navy by Beechcraft.

"This new streamlined information system will break down the distance between police in different corners of the state."

Another market for drones that grown tremendously is the drone inspection market. The value of the inspections for confined spaces (examples include Oil and Gas, Power Generation, Mining, Chemicals, Marine Vessels, and others) was $795.12 million in 2019 and is projected to reach $1,936.32 million by 2027.

Today, when we think of military drones, we tend to think of sleek, advanced planes and quadcopters.  However, the world’s inventors and militaries first developed drone technology as balloons, torpedoes, and aerial targets – feats of invention and innovation at the time.

"Electronic tasking means...improving the quality and speed of providing victim and witness case progress updates and less internal chase-up enquiries.”

The world’s most widely used RMS eliminates silos and delivers integrated functionality that captures every aspect of policing from the front line to the courtroom.

"[We are] now in the enviable position of having one of the most technologically advanced computer systems of any police force in the UK."

The MQ-9 Reaper is a larger, more powerful version of the U.S. government’s initial MQ-1 Predator drone developed in the 1990s.

"NicheRMS is clearly a much more intuitive product than our legacy records management system...the search features are extremely flexible."

Percepto, one of the first companies in line to receive type certification, is a global market leader for autonomous industrial drones and remote autonomous inspection and monitoring solutions. Their systems are autonomous, intelligent and simple.

In 2015, the first legal delivery of medical supplies occurred in the U.S. The market for global medical drones is predicted to reach $947.6 million by 2027.

What do you envision when you hear the word “drone?” Today, drones are used in many ways including delivery of small items, industrial site inspections, infrastructure monitoring, mapping, crop monitoring, emergency response and security surveillance. The use cases seem endless as more and more industries discover ways that drones benefit their business. And of course, as world regulators are beginning to work with industry leaders and stakeholders to allow for more complex operations – as is the case in the US with the new beyond visual line of sight aviation rulemaking committee.

"Because [Niche] has incorporated modern technology throughout their product design, we feel that they are well suited to meet our as yet unknown future needs."

It wasn’t until 2013, after Amazon announced it would use drones for delivery, that the general public really began to take notice.

"This new streamlined information system will break down the distance between police in different corners of the state."

Niche Technology does not host or operate police systems. Niche does not generally have access to police data and cannot provide any useful information in response to police-related access to information requests. All requests for information concerning police data, actions, operations or use of computer systems must be directed to the police agency in question or to the relevant government authority.

"NicheRMS is clearly a much more intuitive product than our legacy records management system...the search features are extremely flexible."

In the early 70s, Israel began using drones as decoys in the Yom Kippur War. It was during this same time that the United States officially confirmed that they had been using drones in Vietnam. According to the Armed Forces Journal International in 1982, the U.S. stated that they had flown more than 3,435 drone missions during the war for both decoy and surveillance applications.

Government agencies quickly began testing drone technologies for disaster relief and border surveillance while corporations began using them for commercial applications like pipeline inspections, crop evaluation, and security.

When access counts and information matters: Five separate UK agencies share a single NicheRMS365 system to contain costs and improve service, information integrity, and field response times.

Our project teams have a powerful mixture of professional PM knowledge and more than 400 years of combined policing experience. They know, and can meet, the needs of the modern-day police officer.