CityDroneWatch
  1. CityDroneWatch
  2. Minnesota
  3. Rochester
  4. March 2026
  5. 17

Rochester, Minnesota · one day

Tuesday 17 March 2026

19 drone flights from Rochester Police Department's published record.

19

drone flights over Rochester that day.

8:05 am

first takeoff; the last was at 5:10 pm.

9 min

median flight. Half were shorter.

Rochester police drones flew 19 times on Tuesday 17 March 2026, the first at 8:05 am and the last at 5:10 pm CDT, by Rochester Police Department's published record.

19 drawable flights of 19. Each path is the whole flight, simplified; a flight with a sensitive stated purpose is drawn as an area.
One flight, takeoff to landingSensitive-purpose flight, as an area

Hour by hour

Takeoffs by hour, CDT.

12a1a2a3a4a5a6a7a8a9a10a11a12p1p2p3p4p5p6p7p8p9p10p11p

Why, in the agency's words

  1. Training and testing47%
  2. Call for service32%
  3. Events16%
  4. Traffic and crashes5%

Flights, in order

19 flights. Those in the latest full month link to their own page; a flight with a sensitive stated purpose has no page of its own.

Takeoff (CDT)PurposeAirborneFlight
8:05 amCall for service11 minf62bdcb6
8:33 amCall for service12 min20d520c3
9:08 amTraffic and crashes9 min3b680898
10:16 amTraining and testing12 mind51016a1
10:28 amTraining and testing10 minc4913972
12:01 pmTraining and testing2 minec40c121
12:17 pmTraining and testing2 min482de5ee
12:33 pmEvents15 min17ff21d8
12:36 pmCall for service8 min0758904d
2:07 pmTraining and testing39 sc8fe86c1
2:47 pmCall for service13 min36fb2651
2:48 pmEvents10 minf2e579b8
3:48 pmCall for service12 min1d8e9ea7
4:08 pmEvents16 min7d0b3186
4:20 pmCall for service7 min53c3f5ee
4:53 pmTraining and testing1 min 21 s625f891d
4:55 pmTraining and testing1 min 17 s115e018c
5:02 pmTraining and testing7 minbc1a5984
5:10 pmTraining and testing1 min 02 s9c10e1a8

How this page is made

  • Every flight in the agency's published record is counted and listed; drawn paths are the whole flight, simplified to 10 m.
  • The record's free-text description is never read into a page. A flight whose stated purpose names a domestic, sexual-assault, kidnapping, welfare, mental-health or juvenile matter is listed like any other but drawn as a generalised area, not a path.
  • Operators are the agency's own accounts in the record, numbered within the agency in order of first flight; no name or address is read into a page.
  • Purposes are the agency's own words, grouped into classes by a committed lookup table; unmatched values are "Other" and blank ones "Not stated".
  • Times are converted to the agency's clock through the IANA zone database, never a fixed offset.
  • A day is the agency's local calendar day of takeoff.

Corrections and questions: see the about page. See about this site for the sources and the publication rules.