Police departments in the Philadelphia suburbs are using drones as first responders, but a newly published DroneXL price analysis argues that the economics behind those programs are more complicated than a broad claim that the technology is becoming cheaper.
DroneXL reported that Skydio’s February 2025 cooperative-contract price list set the X10 Dock Bundle—one dock and one thermal-equipped X10—at $50,547 before a separate $35,250 deployment charge. It also listed dock maintenance and repair at $9,900 annually and a DFR Command license with T-Mobile data at $9,960, with no term stated. The analysis compared that bundle with a DJI Dock 3 and thermal Matrice 4TD, which it said was listed at $23,418 to $26,412 in a September dealer survey.
The comparison matters for agencies weighing automated deployments rather than manually launched aircraft. DroneXL identified Upper Darby’s equipment as a Skydio X10 operating from a Skydio dock, while it said Bensalem’s command-center feed showed a Skydio X10. The report noted that Bensalem has not publicly said what equipment it replaced or when.
Lower Merion offers a documented local budget benchmark. Its police department requested $375,000 over five years for one drone under Axon’s Drone as First Responder program, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer’s September report. The proposed aircraft would launch from a dock for certain 911-call categories, with a police officer remotely viewing its live feed.
That proposal remained a request, not an approved deployment. The Inquirer reported that commissioners took no funding vote and said they wanted clearer policy guidelines before adding it to the budget. Lower Merion already operates five manually launched drones; the proposed automated model would be intended to reduce the lag between dispatch and launch.