News, deep dives, and analysis — every Wisconsin story, newest first.
Beaver Dam police officers brought their drone unit into the city's Intro to Police Work summer school class, giving elementary-age students a hands-on look at how the department flies real public-safety missions.
U.S. Central Command shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, then struck Iranian coastal radar sites in response, the latest kinetic exchange to test a ceasefire that has held in name only since April. The drones were headed for the world’s most important oil chokepoint, the same…
Portage County Sheriff’s Office deputies located a missing 91-year-old woman with a thermal-equipped drone at 11:51 p.m. on May 5, roughly 43 minutes after the initial call came in. She’d walked away from a residential care facility in Plover, Wisconsin sometime after 9:45 p.m. and ended up in a wooded area, as Waupaca Now reported.…
Autonomous drones are no longer a future promise for law enforcement. In Grand Chute, Wisconsin, police are already letting software and sensors arrive before squad cars. Since April 2025, the Grand Chute Police Department has been running a pilot drone as a first responder program, collecting real world data on how autonomous aircraft can support…
Losing a pet rarely feels dramatic at first. A gate left open. A collar that slips. Then minutes turn into hours, hours into a quiet panic. In Wisconsin, one drone pilot decided that waiting was not an option, as KIMT3 reports. In Oconomowoc, Sky Guardian Rescue has turned advanced drone technology into a lifeline for…
Welcome to your weekly US news update from Pilot Institute. We have three important stories this week that show both the risks and benefits of drone operations. A police drone crashed and injured a child. A thermal drone helped rescue a missing 85-year-old man. And a viral drone show proposal set a new standard for…
An 85-year-old man who wandered into the woods near Meredith Road and State Highway 58 in Juneau County was safely found Monday night thanks to a fast drone search. The Juneau County Sheriff’s Office said the call came in shortly after 5 p.m., when a concerned caller believed the man was lost and possibly injured…
Wisconsin lawmakers are circulating legislation that would authorize police to shoot down drones they deem threats to public safety—a move that directly contradicts federal law making it a felony to destroy any aircraft, including drones. The bill, coauthored by Rep. Chuck Wichgers (R-Muskego) and Sen. Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin), would grant law enforcement unprecedented authority…
One email with the drone news that matters — DJI, FAA, public safety, and everything in between, straight from the newsroom. No spam, no fluff.
