Video · 2026-05-18 · 11m · 36 moments

How Founders Can Build for Law Enforcement and First Responders | The a16z Show

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Anecdote◆

A drone provided situational awareness that revealed a reported 'guy with a shotgun' was actually a janitor with a broom, preventing a potentially dangerous police response.

Rahul recounts a real incident where a drone's aerial view corrected a mistaken 911 report of an armed man, defusing what could have been a dangerous police encounter.

transcript

Rahul: I remember a story from uh one story where somebody at night someone called 911 and said, 'Hey, there's a guy in the alleyway with a shotgun.' Well, you can imagine how a police officer would respond to that call, but it turned out the drone provided uh you know, situational awareness and said, 'Wait, there's just a janitor with a broom.' That's not a guy with a shotgun. And it totally de-escalates the situation.

Anecdote◆

A drone provided situational awareness that revealed a reported 'guy with a shotgun' was actually a janitor with a broom, de-escalating a potentially dangerous police response.

Rahul recounts a real incident where a 911 caller reported a man with a shotgun, but a drone revealed it was a janitor with a broom, defusing the situation before officers arrived.

transcript

Rahul: Someone called 911 and said, 'Hey, there's a guy in the alleyway with a shotgun.' Well, you can imagine how a police officer would respond to that call, but it turned out the drone provided situational awareness and said, 'Wait, there's just a janitor with a broom.' That's not a guy with a shotgun. And it totally de-escalates the situation.

Anecdote◆

A drone provided situational awareness that revealed a reported 'guy with a shotgun' was actually a janitor with a broom, de-escalating a potentially dangerous police response.

Rahul recounts a 911 call about an armed man in an alley that a drone revealed was actually a janitor with a broom, preventing a dangerous police response.

transcript

Rahul: somebody at night someone called 911 and said, 'Hey, there's a guy in the alleyway with a shotgun.' Well, you can imagine how a police officer would respond to that call, but it turned out the drone provided uh you know, situational awareness and said, 'Wait, there's just a janitor with a broom.' That's not a guy with a shotgun. And it totally de-escalates the situation.

Anecdote

A drone sent to a 911 call about 'a guy in the alleyway with a shotgun' revealed the person was actually a janitor with a broom, defusing a potentially dangerous police response.

Rahul recounts a real incident where a drone's live view corrected a mistaken 911 report of an armed suspect, preventing an escalated police reaction.

transcript

Rahul: someone called 911 and said, 'Hey, there's a guy in the alleyway with a shotgun.' Well, you can imagine how a police officer would respond to that call, but it turned out the drone provided situational awareness and said, 'Wait, there's just a janitor with a broom.' That's not a guy with a shotgun. And it totally de-escalates the situation.

Anecdote◆

A drone's real-time situational awareness can defuse a dangerous 911 call before officers ever arrive, by correcting mistaken threat assessments.

Rahul recounts a 911 call about 'a guy with a shotgun' that a responding drone revealed was actually a janitor with a broom, defusing what could have been a dangerous police encounter.

transcript

Rahul: Somebody at night someone called 911 and said, 'Hey, there's a guy in the alleyway with a shotgun.' Well, you can imagine how a police officer would respond to that call, but it turned out the drone provided situational awareness and said, 'Wait, there's just a janitor with a broom.' That's not a guy with a shotgun. And it totally de-escalates the situation.

supports · 1

Anecdote◆

A drone's situational awareness footage revealed that a reported '911 guy with a shotgun' was actually a janitor with a broom, preventing a potentially dangerous police response.

Rahul recounts a 911 call about a man with a shotgun that a drone's video feed revealed to actually be a janitor with a broom, completely de-escalating the situation before officers arrived.

transcript

Rahul: I remember a story from uh one story where somebody at night someone called 911 and said, "Hey, there's a guy in the alleyway with a shotgun." Well, you can imagine how a police officer would respond to that call, but it turned out the drone provided uh you know, situational awareness and said, "Wait, there's just a janitor with a broom."

gives example · 1

Prediction◆

Drones becoming a routine, pervasive part of public safety response—finding shooters, chasing vehicles, replacing helicopters—is essentially inevitable because the helicopter alternative is unsustainable.

Rahul argues drones will become a standard fixture of policing because they can do what helicopters can't sustainably do, like pursuing vehicles after a gunshot is detected.

transcript

Rahul: That's something that it's kind of almost hard to see that it isn't inevitable. We can't do that with a helicopter today unless you just kept five helicopters up 24/7 and that's just not sustainable. This is the only way to actually achieve that level of safety.

gives example · 1

Prediction◆

Drone deployment for tasks like chasing suspects or Amber Alert vehicles is inevitable because it's the only way to achieve that level of public safety coverage, since keeping helicopters aloft 24/7 isn't sustainable.

Rahul argues drones will inevitably become standard for law enforcement response (e.g., chasing suspects or Amber Alert vehicles) because maintaining equivalent helicopter coverage 24/7 is impossible.

transcript

Rahul: Or you hear a gunshot, you know, go off and the drone finds a, you know, a shooter getting into a car and driving off and then pursuing the vehicle even on the highways... That's something that it's kind of almost hard to see that it isn't inevitable. We can't do that with a helicopter today unless you just kept five helicopters up 24/7 and that's just not sustainable.

Prediction◆

Widespread drone deployment for real-time crime response (chasing suspects, tracking Amber Alert vehicles) is essentially inevitable because helicopters can't provide the same 24/7 coverage sustainably.

Rahul argues that drones responding to gunshots or Amber Alerts and pursuing vehicles are becoming inevitable in public safety, since keeping helicopters airborne around the clock isn't sustainable.

transcript

supports · 1gives example · 1

Prediction◆

Widespread drone deployment in public safety (replacing helicopters for tasks like pursuing suspects) is inevitable because helicopters can't provide 24/7 coverage sustainably.

Rahul argues that drone use in policing—chasing suspects, tracking Amber Alert vehicles, responding to gunshots—is inevitable because keeping helicopters airborne 24/7 isn't sustainable.

transcript

Rahul: Or you hear a gunshot go off and the drone finds a shooter getting into a car and driving off and then pursuing the vehicle even on the highways... That's something that it's kind of almost hard to see that it isn't inevitable. We can't do that with a helicopter today unless you just kept five helicopters up 24/7 and that's just not sustainable.

gives example · 1

Prediction◆

Drone response to 911 calls will replace helicopter patrol because keeping helicopters aloft 24/7 isn't sustainable, making autonomous drone response to gunshots and pursuits inevitable.

Rahul argues that networked sensors (gunshot detection, license-plate cameras) triggering autonomous drone response to crimes in progress is becoming inevitable, since maintaining helicopter coverage around the clock is not feasible.

transcript

Rahul: Or you hear a gunshot, you know, go off and the drone finds a, you know, a shooter getting into a car and driving off and then pursuing the vehicle even on the highways, you know, with with DPS. That's something that it's kind of almost hard to see that it isn't inevitable. We can't do that with a helicopter today unless you just kept five helicopters up 24/7 and that's just not sustainable.

supports · 1

Prediction◆

Widespread drone use in policing is becoming inevitable because drones can provide sustained aerial coverage and pursuit capability that helicopters can't practically match.

Rahul argues that police drone use is inevitable because drones can do things—like continuously monitoring for and chasing suspects—that keeping helicopters aloft 24/7 simply can't sustain.

transcript

Mechanism

The Arizona Department of Public Safety uses body-worn camera analytics and wellness tools to detect officer burnout and combativeness, and has instituted well checks and sabbaticals at the 15 and 25-year marks to help officers perform better.

Colonel Glover describes how Arizona DPS uses tools like Vitanya, Truleo behavioral analytics on body cams, and burnout detection to trigger well checks and sabbaticals for troopers.

transcript

Colonel Glover: from the advent of the our body worn camera and being able to take that technology, run those analytics behind it, be able to check for those that had burnout um where if we need to pull them from the field, if we need to do something a little bit different, um we started instituting well checks and uh sabbaticals for those that are at the 15 and 25-year mark.

Mechanism

Arizona DPS built an integrated technology ecosystem—brain-scan check-ins, body-camera behavioral analytics, and burnout tracking—to protect officer mental health and job performance.

Colonel Glover describes Arizona DPS's ecosystem of tools—including Vitanya's brain-scan check-ins and Trulio's body-cam behavior analytics—used to flag officer burnout and trigger wellness interventions like sabbaticals.

transcript

Colonel Glover: We utilize Vitanya, Heal the Heroes. It's basically, you know, brain scan sort of start off the day and everything to figure out exactly how are you doing, a temperature check. Then they go out, they can do their shift behind the body worn camera. We have analytics, it's Trulio, that's running behind the body worn camera just to see for the behavior and interaction.

Mechanism

Arizona DPS has built a technology ecosystem—brain-scan check-ins, body-camera behavioral analytics, and burnout flagging—that leads to well checks and sabbaticals protecting officer mental health and performance.

Colonel Glover describes a suite of tools—Vitanya/Heal the Heroes check-ins and Trulio body-cam analytics—used to monitor trooper wellbeing and trigger interventions like sabbaticals.

transcript

Colonel Glover: we utilize Vitanya uh Heal the Heroes. It's basically, you know, brain scan sort of start off the day and everything to figure out exactly how are you doing, a temperature check... We have analytics, it's Trulio that's running behind the body worn camera just to see for the behavior and interaction.

Mechanism

Analytics running behind body-worn cameras can score how officers interact with the public and how the public interacts with officers, flagging combative situations for supervisors.

Colonel Glover describes deploying an analytics platform (Trulio) behind body-worn cameras to score trooper-public interactions and flag combative encounters for supervisors.

transcript

Colonel Glover: We have analytics. It's uh Trulio that's running behind the um the body worn camera just to see for the behavior and interaction. Part of that was, you know, looking at, you know, you can do a scorecard for how the trooper is interacting with the public, but it also gets a little bit of an of of information on how the public is interacting with that trooper uh to see if they're combative or not.

Mechanism

Body-worn camera analytics can be used not just to police officer conduct but to detect officer burnout and trigger interventions like well checks and sabbaticals.

Colonel Glover describes how Arizona DPS runs behavioral analytics on body-worn camera footage to flag officer burnout, leading to well checks and mandatory sabbaticals at 15- and 25-year career marks.

transcript

Colonel Glover: We started instituting well checks and uh sabbaticals for those that are at the 15 and 25-year mark to be able to help optimize their performance so that way when they go out in the field, they feel good about what they're doing and they have job satisfaction.

Mechanism

Body-worn camera analytics can track officer-public interaction behavior and flag burnout, enabling well checks and sabbaticals at career milestones to protect officer mental health and job performance.

Colonel Glover describes how his agency uses AI analytics behind body-worn cameras to score officer-public interactions and detect burnout, leading to instituted well checks and sabbaticals at the 15- and 25-year marks.

transcript

Colonel Glover: We started instituting well checks and uh sabbaticals for those that are at the 15 and 25-year mark to be able to help help optimize their performance so that way when they go out in the field, they feel good about what they're doing and they have job satisfaction.

provides context · 1

Context

Public and police-union opposition to body cameras reversed once it became clear the footage mostly protects officers by documenting suspects' own bad behavior.

Rahul notes that initial public and police-union resistance to body cams flipped once people realized the footage largely captures suspects' own misconduct, ultimately protecting officers.

transcript

Rahul: It's been amazing to see that the public sentiment shift over things like body cams. You know, at first people were very against body cams. Even some of the officer unions were against body cams and they realized, 'Wait a minute. You see all the dumb things that the criminals do.' So that's pretty good. It protects our officers.

Fact

As global crime and threats become more interconnected, effective policing requires cross-border intelligence sharing through fusion centers and international liaison officers.

Colonel Glover describes Arizona DPS's push toward international intelligence partnerships—hosting liaison officers from Mexico, the UAE, and Liberia—to share unclassified crime-trend data before threats materialize locally.

transcript

Colonel Glover: We have a lot of partnerships with different groups, especially, you know, of course we are a border state, so we have the state of Sonora, Mexico that's right next to us. We're looking at being able to have the ability of having intelligence officers from Mexico, from the UAE, from Liberia, from different parts of the world because the world is getting a lot smaller.

Claim◆

Founders building for law enforcement should not be intimidated by resistance to change; the change is inevitable because it benefits officers, communities, and the country, so founders should take it upon themselves to drive it and should embed with cops (ride-alongs, becoming a reserve officer) to understand their world.

Rahul advises founders targeting public safety not to be intimidated by cops' resistance to change, since beneficial change is inevitable, and to spend real time with officers (ride-alongs, reserve duty) to understand what to build.

transcript

Rahul: There's two things cops hate. For things to change and for things to stay the same... recognize that that change will come, no matter what. It'll come because it's the best thing for them. It's the best thing for the communities. It's the best thing for the country. And just take it upon yourself to be the person who brings the change. Don't be intimidated by it just because they're cops.

Claim◆

Founders building for law enforcement should not be intimidated by the fact that 'cops hate change and hate things staying the same,' because transformative change is inevitable and beneficial, and founders should spend real time with cops (ride-alongs, even becoming a reserve cop) to understand what to build.

Rahul advises founders targeting public safety not to be intimidated by police resistance to change, and to deeply immerse themselves with cops—via ride-alongs or even becoming a reserve officer—to understand what to build.

transcript

Rahul: There's two things cops hate. For things to change and for things to stay the same... recognize that that change will come, no matter what... just take it upon yourself to be the person who brings the change. Don't be intimidated by it just because they're cops... spend a lot of time with the cops, too... Do some ride-alongs. Um really get an understanding of it. Be a reserve cop, you know, if you want to uh really get into it.

Claim◆

Founders should not be intimidated by law enforcement's resistance to change, because technological change in policing is inevitable and beneficial, and founders should embed themselves with cops to build the right products.

Rahul advises founders targeting public safety not to be intimidated by cops' resistance to change, since technological change is inevitable and beneficial, and to spend real time with officers (ride-alongs, becoming a reserve cop) to understand what to build.

transcript

Rahul: There's two things cops hate: for things to change, and for things to stay the same. And so it feels like a very narrow thread that you have to hit. But the reality is that if you can picture something that feels like an inevitability... recognize that that change will come, no matter what. It'll come because it's the best thing for them, it's the best thing for the communities, it's the best thing for the country. And just take it upon yourself to be the person who brings the change.

Claim◆

Founders building for law enforcement should embrace that change is inevitable and beneficial, and should immerse themselves directly with police (e.g., ride-alongs) to understand what to build.

Rahul advises founders not to be intimidated by police resistance to change, framing it as a universal truth ('cops hate change and hate staying the same'), and to spend real time with officers—through ride-alongs or reserve service—to build what actually helps them.

transcript

Claim◆

Founders building for law enforcement should recognize that beneficial technological change is inevitable and should take it upon themselves to drive that change rather than being intimidated by police resistance.

Rahul's core advice to founders is that despite cops' reputation for resisting change, beneficial technology will inevitably be adopted, so founders should embrace being the ones who bring it—and should spend real time with officers to understand their world.

transcript

Rahul: There's two things cops hate. For things to change and for things to stay the same. And so it feels like a very narrow thread that you have to hit. But the reality is that if you can picture something that feels like an inevitability... recognize that that change will come, no matter what. It'll come because it's the best thing for them. It's the best thing for the communities. It's the best thing for the country. And just take it upon yourself to be the person who brings the change.

supports · 1

Claim◆

Founders should not be intimidated by police resistance to change, because 'cops hate two things: things to change and things to stay the same,' and the founders who succeed are those who embrace inevitable change and spend real time with cops to understand their world.

Rahul advises founders targeting public safety not to be intimidated by police resistance, to recognize that beneficial technological change is inevitable, and to spend real time with cops (ride-alongs, even becoming a reserve officer) to understand what to build.

transcript

Rahul: It comes off as very intimidating. I'm sure the Colonel's heard this saying, but it's There's two things cops hate. For things to change and for things to stay the same. And so it feels like a a very narrow thread that you have to hit. But the reality is that if you can picture something that feels like an inevitability... recognize that that change will come, no matter what.

Prediction

Over the next 10 years, policing will shift dramatically toward investigative and technical skills, requiring officers to adapt their mindset as the profession becomes less about physical enforcement and more about analyzing data, video, and AI-driven fraud detection.

Colonel Glover predicts that within 10 years, policing will shift heavily toward investigative, technology-driven work—like analyzing video and AI-flagged fraud—rather than traditional physical enforcement, requiring officers to adapt their skill sets and mindset.

transcript

Colonel Glover: We know that it's going to be something that's going to really dominate this profession over the next 10 years, is that we're going to see such a shift and change that most of the cops out in the field are going to have to change the way their skill set is shaped, because it's going to be a little bit more investigative. It's going to be a little bit more nuanced.

supports · 1

Prediction

Over the next 10 years, policing will shift dramatically toward investigative, nuanced, tech-focused skills, requiring officers to adopt a fundamentally different mindset than traditional policing.

Colonel Glover predicts that over the next decade policing will shift from traditional tactics toward investigative, tech-savvy, nuanced work such as analyzing AI-generated fraud and video evidence, requiring officers to adopt new mindsets.

transcript

Colonel Glover: We know that it's one of the It's going to be something that's going to really dominate this profession over the next 10 years is that we're going to see such a shift and change that most of the cops out on the in the field are going to have to change the way their skill set is shaped because it's going to be a little bit more investigative. It's going to be a little bit more nuanced.

gives example · 1

Prediction

Over the next 10 years, policing will shift so fundamentally toward investigative, tech-driven, and nuanced work (including AI and fraud analysis) that most officers will need to change their skill sets and mindset entirely.

Colonel Glover predicts that within 10 years, policing will become far more investigative and technology-driven (including AI and fraud analysis), forcing most officers to adapt their skills and mindset.

transcript

Colonel Glover: we're going to see such a shift and change that most of the cops out on the in the field are going to have to change the way their skill set is shaped because it's going to be a little bit more investigative. It's going to be a little bit more nuanced... it's not going to look the same anymore 10 years from now.

Prediction

Over the next decade, policing will fundamentally shift toward more investigative, nuanced, technology- and AI-driven work, requiring officers to change their skill sets and mindset.

Colonel Glover predicts that technology and AI will reshape policing over the next 10 years, pushing officers away from traditional tactics toward investigative and technical skills like analyzing AI-related fraud.

transcript

Colonel Glover: most of the cops out on the in the field are going to have to change the way their skill set is shaped because it's going to be a little bit more investigative. It's going to be a little bit more nuanced... it's not going to look the same anymore 10 years from now.

gives example · 1

Prediction

Over the next 10 years, policing will shift dramatically toward more investigative, nuanced, technology- and AI-driven work (including video/fraud analysis), requiring most officers to fundamentally change their skill sets and mindset away from traditional tactics like 'kicking in doors.'

Colonel Glover predicts that within a decade, policing will become far more investigative and nuanced due to technology and AI, forcing most officers to retrain and adopt new mindsets beyond traditional tactics.

transcript

Colonel Glover: We're going to see such a shift and change that most of the cops out on the in the field are going to have to change the way their skill set is shaped because it's going to be a little bit more investigative. It's going to be a little bit more nuanced... It may not be about, you know, kicking in doors and and other things. It's going to be looking at the technical aspects of, you know, this video you just received and looking at AI.

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