CityDroneWatch
  1. CityDroneWatch
  2. Minnesota
  3. Rochester
  4. March 2026
  5. 19

Rochester, Minnesota · one day

Thursday 19 March 2026

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

19

drone flights over Rochester that day.

7:18 am

first takeoff; the last was at 8:36 pm.

8 min

median flight. Half were shorter.

Rochester police drones flew 19 times on Thursday 19 March 2026, the first at 7:18 am and the last at 8:36 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 testing58%
  2. Call for service32%
  3. Events11%

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
7:18 amTraining and testing8 min4e20ccd6
7:28 amTraining and testing14 min645d56ba
7:44 amTraining and testing6 minbdeeaa56
10:04 amTraining and testing8 mine8b682f3
10:21 amTraining and testing14 minb232f444
10:26 amCall for service12 min19171a28
10:50 amEvents12 minb1216d74
10:56 amTraining and testing7 minac9e3b3d
11:10 amTraining and testing5 min2973352e
11:21 amTraining and testing9 min15b028dc
11:50 amTraining and testing3 min6a6358c9
12:02 pmCall for service9 mina98ebc68
1:06 pmCall for service9 mincaf8373e
1:29 pmCall for service10 minedae96d3
1:45 pmEvents4 mina8dfafb5
2:23 pmCall for service1 min 31 s8d338c27
3:01 pmCall for service11 min53a96f4e
3:53 pmTraining and testing56 s6ef11124
8:36 pmTraining and testing4 minb6b581d9

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.