Skip to main content
Case Study

Reliable Connectivity for Glendale Police Department’s Super Bowl Drone Operations

JUMP TO

Overview

The Glendale Police Department (GPD) uses the Plum Case portable broadband kit to provide connectivity for field operations including SWAT command, county task forces, command posts, and its drone program. Reliable, high-bandwidth connectivity strengthens police operations and investigations by letting the department run large volumes of bodycam video and live stream high-definition video for drone operations. The Plum Case has proven to be an optimal portable connectivity solution for the department.

About

The Glendale Police Department serves Glendale, Arizona, home to State Farm Stadium. The department is responsible for policing major events at the stadium and across the city, including NFL games, college football bowl games, and concerts. To keep watch over large crowds, the GPD deploys drones for overwatch on crowds, traffic, fights, suspicious packages, other aircraft, and any incident that calls for an immediate response.

Challenge

Whenever a special event takes place, the GPD relies on the Plum Case to establish connectivity for drone operations, typically working from rooftops six or seven stories up. Getting a strong enough connection at that height had been a persistent problem before the Plum Case.

During Super Bowl LVII in February 2023, the GPD set up two drone operation locations, each equipped with a Plum Case. As anticipated, network congestion became an issue on game day. The department typically sees 160 Mbps download with the Plum Case, and around 100 Mbps during regular season NFL games, but on Super Bowl day bandwidth dropped to 4 Mbps, well below their baseline.

We're typically operating on rooftops, about six or seven stories up. Before we had a Plum Case, we struggled to get a connection strong enough to support the drone operations. We tried a few different connectivity tools, but the Plum Case was the first solution that we tried that worked.
Sgt. Laura Beeler, Glendale Police Department

Solution

With bandwidth down on Super Bowl day, the GPD reached out to Plum Support. The team was able to remote into the Plum Case and optimize the system on the fly, without the officers needing to stay on the phone during the event.

We called Plum up on the fly. They were able to remote into the Plum Case and make some changes. Since I didn’t have time to sit on the phone with support, I asked that they just call me back. Within five minutes I got a call from Plum Support, telling me the changes were done and to test it out. We were getting back up into the 50 – 60 Mbps download range, which was huge. Honestly, we’re normally used to about a hundred during regular football season games so 60 Mbps for an event as large as the Super Bowl was impressive.

Officer J. Ellis, Glendale Police Department

Outcome

After the remote optimization, download speeds recovered to the 50 to 60 Mbps range, enough for the GPD to run two drones off each Plum Case throughout the event. The Plum Support Team, headquartered in Springfield, TN, resolved the issue quickly and kept both drone locations online during one of the largest events the department covers. The combination of Plum’s proprietary technology and 24x7x365 support gives public safety teams a dependable connectivity solution for critical operations.