Miller's department in rural western Colorado has the widest approval to fly drones of any local law enforcement agency in the U.S.
Mesa has flown 40 missions in just over three years, ‘none of them surveillance,’ said Miller, who crafted the department's drone program and spent a year devising training protocol for fellow deputies before receiving FAA approval

Texas pilot Gene Robinson has been designing and flying domestic drone systems custom-made for disaster and emergency response for more than a decade.
Robinson said his drone has flown dozens of search missions for law enforcement agencies in 29 states and four countries, locating 10 missing persons after traditional search-and-rescue resources were exhausted.

When the FAA formally banned commercial drone use in the U.S. in 2007, Robinson registered his company as a 501(c)3 nonprofit to sidestep the ban on commercial drone use.
‘That drives the FAA nuts,’ Miller said..