But the storm made it impossible to launch their usual drones. The wind was unforgiving, the snow too heavy. Every passing moment meant a greater risk of hypothermia.

Then Perrott remembered something.

Just hours earlier, BPD had received a new tool—a Fotokite, an advanced tethered drone system designed for a continuous overhead view. Unlike their traditional drones which run on batteries and need to land often, this one stays connected to a patrol vehicle for power, allowing it to stay in the air as long as needed. The Fotokite also has thermal imaging, and in this search, it might be their only chance.

Perrott made a call.

That night, for the first time, they put it to the test.

Officer Nicholas Poblocki, a fellow BPD SWAT team member, got the call to assist in the search. He wasn’t scheduled to work—but that didn’t matter.

“When we get a call to come in, we take a lot of pride in not saying no,” Poblocki said. “If you ask me to be there, I’ll be there to make sure that whatever you need is handled.”

With the Fotokite in the air, its thermal camera swept across the snow-covered park near the hospital. Trees and frozen ground in each direction. No movement. Just cold. Then—something.

“So once we had the Fotokite running, and we were running controls from the tablet, we kind of hit on what would be considered like a hotspot on the thermal camera,” said Poblocki.

A single warm signature against a frozen park.
With Poblocki guiding him over the phone, Lieutenant Perrott walked into the snow-covered woods toward the heat source.

“I didn’t think we were gonna have anything until I got a little bit closer,” Perrott remembered. “And I saw the person, hunched up against the trees, partially covered with snow, not a footprint to be seen around them.”

It was a moment hung between disbelief and relief. Perrott had been bracing himself for an empty search and instead realized this turned into a rescue.

“I just asked if he wanted to go get in a warm car,” he said. “And as he looked up, he very willingly wanted to go get in a warm car.”

It had been six hours since the person had walked away from the hospital. Six hours in brutal cold.

While Perrott worked to make sure the situation was safe and the man was stable using his EMS training to check for hypothermia, Poblocki called ahead for an ambulance.

For Deputy Commissioner Patrick Overdorf, the rescue was a defining moment—not just for the department, but for the city.

“The fact that we were able to utilize that technology in such a short timeframe, the amount of preparedness that they had, and the unbelievable ability of drone technology—specifically with the infrared cameras—being able to see through a Buffalo winter, being able to see this individual being covered in snow, potentially being lost, and potentially losing his life… The ability to use that technology on short notice in those types of conditions was pretty incredible. That’s a large area to cover, and to have an eye in the sky essentially with infrared is just a technology that you can’t replicate from the ground.”

For Poblocki, it was a reminder of why innovation matters.

“If we didn’t have that Fotokite that day, I’m not sure that we would’ve found him that quickly,” he said. “If he would’ve stayed in that location, I would think hypothermia would’ve got to him, and probably not been as successful of an ending as having that tool with us.”

For Perrott, it was the kind of call that stays with you.

“It’s surreal sometimes, right? You hope for the best result, and sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn’t,” he said. “So when you have a great outcome, it’s a good moment.”

Because in Buffalo, officers don’t just serve their city—they are their city. They live there. They raise their families there. And when the call comes, they go.

That December night, training, instinct, and a brand-new tool came together—not just to find someone, but to prevent a tragedy. In the right hands, technology didn’t just make a difference—it saved a life.