THE HIGH FLYER

CHINA MAKES 70% OF THE WORLD'S DRONES. BLAKE RESNICK WANTS TO CHANGE THAT. BACKED BY SAM ALTMAN AND PETER THIEL, THE 25-YEAR-OLD FOUNDER OF BRINC IS ON HIS WAY TO MAKING HIS QUADCOPTERS THE TOP CHOICE FOR AMERICA'S COPS IF ONLY HE CAN GET THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO BAN HIS PRIMARY COMPETITOR.

- BY ZOYA HASAN AND THOMAS BREWSTER

A frantic woman makes a 911 call in the suburban town of Queen Creek, Arizona, southeast of Phoenix, claiming her boyfriend is trying to strangle her. After officers arrive on scene, the suspect slips away.

They launch a Brinc “Responder” drone, which locates him about four minutes later near a major roadway. When the cops catch up, he says he’s armed and ready to shoot. The drone’s camera zooms in. He’s lying. There’s no gun in sight. The officers safely approach and arrest him. The drone flies back to its “nest”—a five-by-five-foot charging dock on the police department’s roof with white metal doors that snap shut like a mechanical Venus flytrap.

Drones scoping out the scene of a crime is an increasingly common scenario in American policing. What is far less common is that they’re made in America. DJI, the giant Chinese drone maker, controls 70% of the global market for government and commercial drones, per analyst estimates, worth some $18.6 billion in 2024. Over 80% of public safety organizations with a drone fleet use DJI devices (while only 7% use Brinc’s).

But crucially for Brinc and its 25-year-old founder, Blake Resnick, the Responder is made in Seattle, not Shenzhen. Resnick’s bet is that American police will soon be using American drones—whether by choice or by necessity. As of December 23, unless the NSA or another security agency vouches for DJI, its drones will be banned from future sale in the U.S.—much to the chagrin of cops and first responders who tell Forbes the Chinese manufacturer’s devices are cheaper, more reliable and more technically advanced. One of DJI’s most advanced police drones, the Matrice M30T, costs around $15,000; Brinc’s comparable Responder starts at $20,000. Even Resnick admits, “DJI makes incredible products at very low prices.”