Michael D. Costello III

Michael D. Costello III is a retired Police Lieutenant and public safety UAS program leader with more than 25 years of law enforcement experience. His background spans command, emergency communications, incident management, tactical operations, major events, unmanned aviation, and security and protective operations.

At the Hoboken Police Department, Costello conceived, built, and led the department's public safety UAS capability from initial concept and command approval through procurement, policy, SOPs, CONOPS, FAA compliance, pilot development, training, governance, operational integration, and sustained deployment.

His experience extends across the public safety response workflow, including communications, CAD, dispatch, radio traffic, field response, aerial intelligence, and command decision making. That perspective informs D1C's view that UAS capability must integrate into the organization rather than operate as an isolated aviation function.

Following retirement from public service, Costello expanded his operational perspective through corporate security, executive protection, and protective operations assignments, informing D1C's work where UAS intersects with security operations, GSOC and SOC workflows, critical infrastructure, executive movement, major events, and incident response.