Speakers

Aaron is a 2004 graduate of Sam Houston State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice. He started his career in law enforcement with the Texas Department of Public Safety in 2005 as a Highway Patrol Trooper.

Aaron found a passion for investigating motor vehicle crashes and pursued additional training to become a crash reconstructionist for TXDPS. In 2011, he was selected to serve as a member of the Highway Patrol’s State Crash Reconstruction Team, where he was eventually promoted to serve as its lead.

In 2013, Aaron began researching and testing unmanned aircraft for crash scene photography, however the technology had not quite developed yet. In 2017, his department put together a working group to develop policies and procedures for an official UAS program, which he was a member of. After the program was officially developed by the end of 2017, he oversaw all UAS operations for the Texas Highway Patrol where the primary use cases were capturing images during crash scene reconstructions for the creation of forensic maps utilizing photogrammetry software.

Aaron has since served as an instructor for the Remote Pilot in Command courses TXDPS teaches to certify its department pilots. Since the beginning of the UAS program, he has assisted in teaching and certifying over 300 personnel as RPICs. He completed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Basic and Advanced Proctor Courses through the Airborne Public Safety Association in 2022 and serves as an Unmanned Flight Instructor for TXDPS. 

In 2022, Aaron promoted to the position of Captain, overseeing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations in the Aircraft Operations Division. In this new role, he serves as a co-instructor in each UAS course taught by the department, develops new training within the program, writes and updates policy and conducts research and testing of new UAS technology. He has also developed a course titled Enforcing Drone Laws that is taught to police officers across Texas and at other national conferences to educate officers on the proper handling of UAS contacts.

Aaron currently serves as a public safety representative for the Federal Aviation Administration cUAS Aviation Rule Making Committee, a public safety representative for the Security Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council on UAS, and as an SME for the National Institute of Standards and Technology 5.0 First Responder UAS 3D Mapping Challenge.

Aaron has over 18 years of experience as a peace officer and has been a certified FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot since 2017 with over 160 documented UAS flight hours from a variety of airframes.