Col. Jeffrey Glover | The a16z Show Summary

Podcast: The A16Z Show | Participants: Col. Jeffrey Glover, David Ulevitch, Rahul Sidhu

1. Key Themes

The Autonomous Sensor Network Is Already Here — Drones Are Just the Visible Layer

The conversation reveals that the real transformation isn't just drones — it's the convergence of multiple sensor types into a unified public safety operating system. License plate readers, gunshot detection, drone pursuit, and AI analytics are already woven together into platforms being deployed today.

"We have multitudes of sensors in the communities. We have license plate reading cameras. We have gunshot detection capabilities. All of this is coming together. All this data where you're able to determine, oh, that's an Amber Alert vehicle. And the drone takes off and chases the Amber Alert vehicle." — Rahul Sidhu 00:02:53

Officer Mental Health Is Becoming a Technology Problem — and a Solvable One

A significant theme is the use of AI and analytics not just for public safety outcomes, but for monitoring and protecting the officers themselves. Body-worn camera analytics are being used to detect burnout, and agencies are instituting structured sabbaticals based on data.

"It can flag the situation as well for the supervisor... it helps with them being able to have that feeling of I have a little bit of a layer of protection because with this, it's going to flag for the burnout as well." — Col. Jeffrey Glover 00:04:19

The Skill Set of a Police Officer Is Being Reinvented

Both speakers agree that law enforcement's core competency is shifting from physical presence and force to investigative intelligence and technical fluency. This has major implications for hiring, training, and technology adoption across every department.

"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... 10 years from now, it may not be about kicking in doors." — Col. Jeffrey Glover 00:09:49

2. Contrarian Perspectives

Drones Will Outcompete Helicopters Entirely — Not Supplement Them

The conventional wisdom is that drones are a supplement to existing aerial assets. The contrarian view here is that the helicopter model is fundamentally broken and drones will replace it wholesale for real-time pursuit and situational awareness.

"We can't do that with a helicopter today unless you've 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." — Rahul Sidhu 00:03:21

Law Enforcement Is Actually One of the Best Markets for Tech Founders — Not a Graveyard

The common founder belief is that selling to government and law enforcement is a death march of long sales cycles and resistance. The contrarian view from Rahul is that the inevitability of these technologies, combined with genuine need, means the market will come to the founders who commit.

"It comes off as very intimidating... but the reality is that if you can picture something that feels like an inevitability in the same way that we talk about drones, AI, some of these things, 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." — Rahul Sidhu 00:08:29

Body Cams Were Opposed by Officers — Then Became Their Greatest Advocate Tool

The accepted narrative is that body cameras were primarily pushed on law enforcement from the outside for accountability. The contrarian reality is that officers and unions came to embrace them because they protect officers from false accusations and provide coaching and welfare data.

"At first, people were very against body cams. Even some of the officer unions were against body cams. Then they realized, wait a minute, you see all the dumb things that the criminals do. So that's pretty good." — David Ulevitch 00:05:23

International Intelligence Sharing at the State Level Is Now a Strategic Necessity

Most people think of international law enforcement coordination as a federal responsibility. Colonel Glover's Arizona program challenges that assumption entirely — state-level agencies are now building their own international intelligence networks.

"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." — Col. Jeffrey Glover 00:06:47

3. Companies Identified

Flock Safety A public safety technology company building an integrated sensor and AI platform for law enforcement, including license plate readers, gunshot detection, and drone-as-first-responder capabilities. David Ulevitch sits on the board and cited multiple real-world deployments including Amber Alert vehicle tracking and active shooter drone pursuit.

"I'm on the board of Flock Safety. There's other companies like Skydio that make drones. I'm the recipient of constant notifications from you guys. Hey, we found a kidnapped child. We used the technology in this way." — David Ulevitch 00:01:41

Skydio American drone manufacturer focused on autonomous flight, mentioned as a key player in the law enforcement drone space alongside Flock Safety.

"There's other companies like Skydio that make drones." — David Ulevitch 00:01:41

Vitania / Heal the Heroes A brain scan and mental wellness platform being used by law enforcement to perform daily cognitive and emotional health checks on officers before shifts.

"We utilize Vitania, Heal the Heroes. It's basically brain scan, sort of start off the day and everything to figure out exactly how are you doing — temperature check." — Col. Jeffrey Glover 00:03:51

Trulio An AI analytics company running behavioral analysis behind body-worn cameras to evaluate officer-public interactions and flag burnout signals.

"Behind the body-worn camera, we have analytics at Trulio that's running behind the body-worn camera just to see for the behavior and interaction." — Col. Jeffrey Glover 00:04:19

Sharp Performance A performance tracking and burnout detection platform specifically designed for law enforcement personnel, led by founder Ben Curley.

"There's a founder here, Ben Curley, in the audience that is the CEO of Sharp Performance that does exactly that." — Rahul Sidhu 00:08:00

4. People Identified

Rahul Sidhu Co-founder/CEO of Flock Safety, former police officer and paramedic turned public safety tech entrepreneur. Cited for his rare combination of operational law enforcement experience and technology entrepreneurship, giving him unique credibility to both build and deploy in this space.

"Spend a lot of time with the cops too... It is hard if you don't know what they've been through, what it feels like to be on the beat. Spend time, do some ride-alongs, really get an understanding of it." — Rahul Sidhu 00:08:59

Col. Jeffrey Glover Colonel at Arizona Department of Public Safety, one of the most technology-forward law enforcement executives in the country. Cited for actively deploying cutting-edge tech including AI body cam analytics, brain scan wellness checks, and international intelligence partnerships at the state level — making Arizona a model for the rest of the country.

"Every leader is looking at how do we make this adjustment? How do we become a little bit more flexible and adaptable to what's going to be the need?" — Col. Jeffrey Glover 00:10:17

Ben Curley CEO of Sharp Performance, a founder building officer performance and burnout tracking technology for law enforcement. Mentioned specifically as an example of the next generation of founders tackling under-served problems in public safety — and was being connected in real time with Colonel Glover during the recording.

"There's a founder here, Ben Curley, in the audience that is the CEO of Sharp Performance that does exactly that." — Rahul Sidhu 00:08:00

5. Operating Insights

Embed Deeply Before You Build — Not After

For founders entering law enforcement or any highly specialized domain, Rahul's advice isn't just to do customer discovery calls — it's to achieve near-practitioner status. Ride-alongs, reserve officer programs, and deep ethnographic immersion are positioned as table stakes.

"Be a reserve cop if you want to, really get into it. And that'll really help you not only speak the language, but know what to build for them." — Rahul Sidhu 00:08:59

Technology Adoption in Resistant Organizations Follows the Inevitability Frame — Lead With That

Instead of pitching features or ROI to resistant institutional buyers, the more effective framing is to position the product as an inevitable future state. This reframes the sales conversation from "why change" to "when to change and with whom."

"If you can picture something that feels like an inevitability in the same way that we talk about drones, AI, some of these things, it'll come because it's the best thing for them." — Rahul Sidhu 00:08:29

Use Major Global Events as Go-To-Market Forcing Functions

Government agencies preparing for high-profile events (FIFA World Cup, Olympics) are actively adopting new intelligence-sharing platforms under deadline pressure. This is a specific and repeatable procurement window that savvy founders can target.

"You have the TRX program, which a lot of us are doing for FIFA right now because that's the big event that's coming up, as well as the Olympics." — Col. Jeffrey Glover 00:06:17

6. Overlooked Insights

The "Hostile Drone" Problem Is a Massive Emerging Market That Nobody Is Talking About Yet

In a single sentence, Rahul flagged what could be one of the largest emerging defense and public safety market opportunities: counter-drone technology at the domestic law enforcement level. As drone proliferation accelerates for legitimate uses, adversarial drone use will scale in parallel — and almost no one in the VC ecosystem is focused on this at the local law enforcement layer.

"We're going to see also potentially more hostile drones that we have to be prepared for." — Rahul Sidhu 00:02:23

AI Fraud Detection Is the Next Major Skill Shift for Street-Level Officers

Almost in passing, Colonel Glover mentioned that AI fraud will become a core daily competency for patrol officers within a decade — not just detectives or cybercrime units. This points to an enormous training, tooling, and software opportunity that is almost entirely unaddressed at the front-line officer level today.

"It's going to be looking at the technical aspects of this video you just received and looking at AI and certain things that are going to come up from a fraud standpoint as well." — Col. Jeffrey Glover 00:09:49