#34 – Ben Ernst and Kenyon Mossberg

#34 – Ben Ernst and Kenyon Mossberg

September 14th, 2026

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Angus Stocking – Host (00:05.934)
This is Everything Is Somewhere. I’m Angus Stocking. Today we’ll be talking about an interesting project being implemented in Ontario. And I have a few experts with me. The essence of the project is intelligent computer software applied to emergency response applications, also involving drone deployment. Beyond that, I have a lot to learn here as well. Can I ask my guests to introduce themselves and maybe give an overview of the project and Ben, maybe we could start with you.

Ben Ernst – Guest (00:40.034)
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Angus, for the introduction. Super excited to be with you and Kenyon today. My name is Ben Ernst. I’m a vice president in Octave North America public safety business. And our solution helps provide the necessary information so the Ontario public safety professionals can launch the drones and assist with the response actions.

Angus Stocking – Host (01:06.422)
Sounds great. And Kenyon, can we hear from you?

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (01:09.994)
Absolutely. My name’s Kenyon Mossberg. I’m a senior real time information center operator and pilot here with the Ontario Police Department. Our primary role is to not only gather intelligence based on the calls that are coming in through Octaves platform, but also to respond with our drones to the field to get on scene to see what’s happening.

Angus Stocking – Host (01:34.274)
Well, and thank you to both of you. That’s super exciting. And I know in the material I’ve read so far Ben, the emphasis was on the intelligence of the software that you’re deploying. And I assume we’re talking about machine learning or AI to some extent and just good software. What is novel about what you’re implementing here in Ontario?

Ben Ernst – Guest (01:59.404)
Well, I think I think there’s a a couple things. I think from an organizational perspective, right, Octave’s goal is to help organizations turn complex operational data into actionable intelligence. And so that means a lot of different things. But in in this specific case, what we’re doing with nine one one in the computer aided dispatch system and the drone system that Ontario has in place is we are really taking the information from that 911 call for service and providing the necessary details to the drone platform so then it can perform its function. And so, you know, really at a very high level without getting into the details, our platform is connecting the people, the processes, and that real world data that’s coming from those callers to help improve the performance and reduce the risk for for the city of Ontario.

Angus Stocking – Host (02:57.742)
Okay, and Kenyon then what happens?

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (03:01.528)
So once our dispatch center takes that initial call and enters a call for service into the into the Octave platform, the direct API between Octave and SkyDio drops that call for service with the incident number, the location, basic information such as the call type and the phone number of the person who’s calling right onto a map for us to be able to either click on it on the map or on a list. The system will then select the closest drone and we hit launch and respond, the drone will then launch from the dock and fly there autonomously without us having to control it in any way and is on scene in less than ninety seconds from the time we hit that button.

Angus Stocking – Host (03:46.818)
Mm, super. Is there so the you mentioned a map, is that an existing layer of GIS that you’ve already had developed or is it something you created especially for this system?

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (03:57.834)
It’s basically just a open box map that is a satellite overlay, similar to Google.

Angus Stocking – Host (04:03.596)
And then Ben, is the only input that is dealt with is callers in or is there could it also be emergency responders themselves, you know, policemen out on patrol, could they call in or jump start a a drone on their own or what’s the sum total of input into the system that gets things started?

Ben Ernst – Guest (04:26.156)
Yeah. So what I would say is really location is the common language for this workflow that we’re talking about. And so if you think about it, Angus, every emergency starts with a location. Every resource that the city of Ontario has starts with a location. Every drone flight has a location. Every responding unit has a location. And so as that call for service comes in from someone in the public, one of the primary pieces of information that is ultimately transmitted or integrated over to the SkyDio drone platform is the location of that call for service. And so that is why the mapping, the mapping integration and sending those coordinates to the drone platform are so critical because that is the primary input, not the only but the primary input that the SkyDio platform is looking for, as Kenyon said, to ultimately launch the drone to that location.

Angus Stocking – Host (05:31.406)
Super, thank you. And Kenyon, from your point of view, what is better about this system compared to your previous ways of doing business and h how do you measure that and how much better is it?

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (05:44.16)
So previously before we went live with with Octave, we were having to go through multiple steps of launching a drone, whether it was manually typing in the address, zooming around on the map, trying to see exactly where the emergency is located that way and clicking to start a drone, or being reliant on our CAD system talking to a third party, which then was importing data into SkyDio, which, if that third party was down, now we’re not giving the calls for service, versus that direct API connection that is drastically cutting down the time that it takes for us to launch a drone, to the point where over the last 30 days, we’ve had about 440 drone flights to calls for service. And of those 83% of the time we’ve been on scene.

before a ground unit was able to get there, even to the point where we’re able to clear about thirty percent of those calls without a ground unit at all.

Angus Stocking – Host (06:47.078)
And it seems like there could be potentially privacy concerns or you know, people seem to get a little exercised about prone drones in the air. Do you have a policy that you’re implementing in terms of like when you would deploy and when you wouldn’t? Or is that not a concern at all from your point of view?

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (07:05.612)
I as far as when to deploy and when not to deploy, there’s really no set standard. What there is a set standard on is when we’re actually recording with video. Mm-hmm. All of our flights, whether recording with video or not, are tracked and logged. And really it’s not it’s no different than a helicopter flying over on a routine patrol. If our drones over flying over the street on its way to a call or if we’re doing a training flight or a testing flight, there’s still an operational need for that drone to be in the air. We’re not putting it up just to say, hey, we’ve got a drone up in the air.

Angus Stocking – Host (07:44.974)
Great, thank you. Could you give us a a specific example or two with particulars of recent use of the drones that really made gave you a material advantage in responding to an emergency? Yeah.

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (07:58.702)
Absolutely. so we had a short pursuit that a subject was on a motorcycle riding away from our officers, pulled into an apartment complex and went running on foot. That apartment complex backs up to an elementary school. Once the subject was running through the complex, we immediately launched not one but two different drones to respond to that location and begin helping to assist in searching for those suspects. And we were able to quickly clear the entire property of the elementary school and then continue working into the complex to ensure that our suspect was not at that school, potentially endangering the children. And then we were able to systematically sweep the complex with the officers on the ground without them going behind a building and then coming onto an opening where a suspect could be hiding, waiting for them. We’re able to be that extra set of eyes that are supervisors in the field are able to actually live stream that drone and see what we’re seeing as well, which gives them a huge tactical advantage.

Angus Stocking – Host (09:05.196)
Just out of curiosity, what are the specs of these drones? how long can they be in the air? You know, speed at which they can move, resolution of video. Are these, you know, special v drones for law enforcement use? stuff that wouldn’t be necessarily available to you know, me, for example.

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (09:23.244)
So these drones are actually would be considered stock consumer models. Okay. They have a 1080p camera. They can fly at about forty-five miles an hour and can stay in the air for twenty-five to thirty minutes roughly. There are a lot of private agencies, a lot of utility companies that are using the exact same drone for utility line inspections. So these are no different than what they would be using. All these drones have parachutes attached to them. Should there be some kind of malfunction midair to ensure the drone is able to come down safely.

Angus Stocking – Host (09:59.638)
So that’s exciting. In a way it’s cost effective for you as well. And increasing well, it’s better for the public and for taxpayers and everyone. Ben, back to you for a moment. How is this the first time you’ve s installed in a major North American city, or is this a pilot project anyway, or is this mature technology that you’re rolling out quite a bit?

Ben Ernst – Guest (10:26.742)
Yeah, it’s a fairly mature technology, Angus. You know, really public safety agencies all across North America have invested heavily in sensors, drones, GPS, mapping systems, other types of communication tools. And so really the challenge is no longer collecting that information. It’s really about getting the right information to the right person at the right location at the right moment.

If you think about the scenario that Kenyon walked us through a minute ago, right, getting that information, kind of that aerial video, if you will, that situational awareness to the first responders is so important to not only help reduce the risk to the officers or in some cases firefighters as well, but also reduce the risk to the public. And so the ability to again gather and collect.

All of that information can be so valuable for the safety of everybody involved in the city. And so back to your your question, really, you know, Ontario’s deployment, in my opinion, really demonstrates how agencies and law enforcement and and firefighting and EMS can really move beyond what I’ll call traditional dispatch of 911 services and operations towards a much more connected, geospatially aware response ecosystem of taking all of these inputs and providing it into a single picture so cities and agencies can respond in the most effective way.

Angus Stocking – Host (12:05.486)
Cool. Kenyon, now that you have this system up and working and producing results for you, are you starting to see more uses that hadn’t occurred to you at time of installation? For example, is there potential for surveillance use or other forms of law enforcement could be imp could be helped out in addition to emergency response?

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (12:27.384)
Surveillance is is kind of tricky when it comes to drones simply because we’re limited on how high up we can fly, especially having an an airport within our city, and let’s be honest, the drone the drones are loud. And even at two hundred feet where we are limited to, you can still hear the drone from the ground, which kind of makes it difficult to do any kind of surveillance. But we can definitely use it for things like responding to reports of fires with our fire department, the drones do have a thermal capability which allows our battalion chiefs and our fire captains on the ground to get an idea of where there’s a hot spot on the roof to avoid their crews walking on that area and potentially falling through. We can even respond to vehicles off the side of the road where they might be inaccessible. We can get a drone down there to get an idea of where this vehicle’s at. And even something as as small as a major windstorm that comes through and is, you know, knocking branches off of trees and blocking the roadway, our public works department can have us assist them in trying to figure out where the major roadblocks are so they can respond to those first over something that might be a small branch that’s blocking half a lane of a three lane road.

Angus Stocking – Host (13:46.03)
Okay. And Ben, maybe I’ll give you the last word here if you like. What do you see as future directions for this system and the whole idea of location and intelligent software and drone deployment? where are you going with this?

Ben Ernst – Guest (14:03.65)
Yeah, and Angus, I appreciate the question and and you know, I I almost go back to one of the the first things I shared on the on the call today is is the mission that Octave has as a company is to connect, and I said this earlier, the people, the processes and the in the and the real world data to help reduce risk and allow, in this case, law enforcement agencies to make more informed decisions when reliability matters the most. And if you think about not just the one use case that Kenyon gave, there’s many others around search and rescue, missing persons, big fire situations where having something that’s incredibly reliable, allowing those incident commanders to make informed decisions is so critical. And so our role in that.

In providing very accurate location of incident is really the first part of allowing that drone to launch and arrive quickly on scene. And as Kenyon said, in many cases, I think you said 83% of the time, Kenyon, that drone arrives before a traditional on-the-ground responding unit arrives. And so, Angus, where I see it is our involvement in continuing to provide kind of that actionable data. Whether it’s to drones, sensors, or other types of devices where agencies are investing and bring that all together in a common operating picture. That’s where I see this continuing to evolve and advance. And again, just to kind of restate it for emphasis, allow agencies to make informed decisions when it matters most.

Angus Stocking – Host (15:49.794)
Great, thank you. And actually, Kenyon, that brought one more question to mind for me, and that would be would you put more money into drone technology? Based on their success you’re seeing now, would drones that could be in the air twice as long? would that be a good thing? Or if they could operate from higher heights under certain conditions, would that be a good thing?

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (16:16.546)
Yeah, I think absolutely. I think that would give us the ability to not only get on scene, get an understanding of what’s happening, but be able to see it from start to finish without having to utilize multiple drones or be able to stack multiple drones on a scene to get multiple angles of an incident, whether it’s in confined in a a small property or even over some of our larger properties in the south end of our city where we have a lot of ground that we need to cover that we may not be able to with the current battery life of the drone or at our current altitude limitations.

Angus Stocking – Host (16:53.314)
Great. Thank you for that. And and then a final question that th that just keep coming for me. I assume the integration into field operations is pretty tight. Is there a an incident commander, if that’s the right term, who’s looking at a screen or some sort of feedback? Can the guy on scene can he also see what’s going on?

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (17:13.933)
Absolutely. So not only do we have it streaming in our in our real-time information center, it’s streaming directly into our watch commander’s office, directly into our dispatch center, and all of our officers in the field have a direct link that they are able to bring up the drone feed for the drone that’s on scene and be able to see what we’re seeing, which allows them to take a step back, analyze their scene from all angles, both the ground and from above…

Angus Stocking – Host (17:29.614)
Okay.

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (17:42.368)
…see something they may not be able to see, say, in a backyard of the house that they’re that they’re in front of, or if it’s a stolen vehicle that they have stopped and they’ve called everybody out of the car and they’re saying, nope, there’s nobody else in there. We’re able to drop that drone down right next to the car and look in the windows or in the open doors and be able to verify what these occupants were saying. And the officers can see that from their phones or from their mobile computers and their units, and know that it’s safer for them to approach than they knew beforehand.

Angus Stocking – Host (18:20.738)
This has been great. I’m so happy for you that it’s working out well and that technology is making a big change in a positive direction is a a good story. So congratulations, Kenyon. Congratulations, Ben, and thank you for your time today.

Kenyon Mossberg – Guest (18:34.584)
Thank you.

Ben Ernst – Guest (18:35.576)
Great, thanks Angus.