Drone-as-first-responder programs, pursuit footage, evidence policy, and the departments putting UAS on patrol.
A Bay County District Court jury has convicted Bay City digital creator Ray A. Rocha of interfering with a police search by flying his drone over the same airspace where Sheriff’s deputies were running their own search on November 10, 2024. The six-person jury delivered the verdict on May 1, 2026, and Judge Timothy J.…
The Normal Police Department will add a Flock Drone as First Responder unit to its existing six-drone fleet under a one-year pilot, after the Town of Normal Council approved the $50,000 purchase at its June 15 meeting. The seventh aircraft is the department’s first Flock platform and the first one in the fleet designed for…
Skydio CEO Adam Bry published a long-form article on X on June 8 making a direct case against the trend of building large quadcopters for Drone as First Responder (DFR) programs. His argument is not marketing. It is a physics-driven attack on the entire premise that a bigger drone with a bigger camera is the…
A Lee County Sheriff’s Office drone searching for a bear in southwest Florida recorded a man pointing a BB gun at the aircraft and firing at least twice, and the footage put a federal felony on camera in real time. The arrest came Saturday, and the agency later released the video alongside footage of the…
Port St. Lucie’s police department flipped the switch on its new Drone as First Responder program on June 11, and the system did not wait long to prove itself. Within hours, a remotely launched drone located a missing autistic woman before she could reach a nearby canal, arriving on scene ahead of the responding officers.…
The Toronto Police Service tracked a drone flying over a no-fly zone near Toronto Stadium to its pilot several blocks away beside Hotel X, then sent ground officers to confront the operator, all in a staged exercise built and flown by CBC News ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026. The public broadcaster was given…
An Iran-linked hacker group called Handala claims it breached FBI first-person view (FPV) drones and used that access to threaten teams at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which opened June 11 across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist and state-linked propaganda, published the group’s statement on June 12.…
Vancouver just became the first city in Canada to put police drones on rooftops, ready to launch the second a 911 call lands. The Vancouver Police Department is rolling out six Skydio X10 aircraft in docked Drone as First Responder stations across the city, approved by Transport Canada and timed to arrive before the 2026…
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