Portland Police Expands Drone Program, Adds Gresham Partnership and Precinct-Level Coverage

Portland Police Bureau announced a new pilot expanding its Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) program—now in partnership with the Gresham Police Department—with leadership stating two drones will operate at each precinct to improve response and enhance safety, according to KATU’s report from Thursday’s press conference. The bureau added that it has recorded more than 400 successful deployments in 2025 to date and linked to a public UAS call activity map for transparency.

What’s new in this expansion

Portland Police Chief Bob Day and Gresham Police Chief Travis Gullberg outlined the pilot’s scope at the press conference, confirming precinct-level drone availability and cross-agency integration with Gresham PD. Chief Day underscored the shift toward technology-enabled policing, saying, “Technology is the future for us in policing,” framing drones as tools to accelerate response and reduce officer risk in dynamic incidents

How PPB says drones are used

Officials say drones are deployed to cut response times, keep officers out of immediate danger, and locate suspects faster—use cases that align with the bureau’s public-facing program brief and open data dashboard practices developed since the initial 2023 pilot. The bureau’s dashboard provides call activity with filters by mission type and is updated monthly, which supports verification of deployment frequency and categories of use.

Program background and policy guardrails

The UAS program began in early 2023 under a city-authorized pilot and expanded citywide after a unanimous September 2024 council vote that funded additional aircraft and training, broadening applications such as stolen vehicle recoveries, street racing interdictions, crime scene documentation, search and rescue, and disaster response. PPB states it adheres to Oregon law (ORS 837) and its own SOP, prohibiting indiscriminate mass surveillance, weaponization, crowd control use absent life-safety exigency, and any pairing with facial recognition technology, with defined retention and data-handling limits published for public review.

Gresham PD’s role and regional coordination

The pilot explicitly includes Gresham PD, with both chiefs appearing jointly to describe shared operational goals and precinct-level coverage, signaling a more regionalized deployment posture across east Multnomah County. Gresham’s established UAS resources provide complementary policy and operations scaffolding, supporting interoperability as the Portland pilot scales.

Transparency and ongoing monitoring

KATU’s report cites more than 400 successful deployments in 2025 and directs readers to the UAS call activity map, while PPB’s open-data portal—updated around the 15th of each month—offers a running log of deployments, training flights, and mission types at a neighborhood level of granularity. This builds on the city’s 2023–2024 emphasis on public dashboards and published policies, intended to balance rapid operational benefits with visibility into when and how drones are used.

What it means for operators and the public

For drone professionals, precinct-level availability and interagency coordination point to increased sUAS tasking in time-critical incidents, from searches to tactical overwatch, with operational demand likely to drive pilot training and equipment standardization across units. For residents, the expansion raises familiar questions about proportional use and oversight, though PPB’s posted prohibitions and data governance policies attempt to define boundaries while maintaining situational efficiency gains.

Photos courtesy of Kent Police Department.