CityDroneWatch
  1. CityDroneWatch
  2. Minnesota
  3. Rochester
  4. May 2026
  5. 16

Rochester, Minnesota · one day

Saturday 16 May 2026

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

27

drone flights over Rochester that day.

12:16 am

first takeoff; the last was at 11:34 pm.

10 min

median flight. Half were shorter.

Rochester police drones flew 27 times on Saturday 16 May 2026, the first at 12:16 am and the last at 11:34 pm CDT, by Rochester Police Department's published record.

27 drawable flights of 27. 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. Call for service48%
  2. Events30%
  3. Training and testing11%
  4. Other7%
  5. Search4%

Flights, in order

27 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
12:16 amCall for service13 mineb23b3e9
10:10 amTraining and testing1 min 14 s33c27a4b
10:13 amTraining and testing1 min 29 s7115dbf2
12:04 pmCall for service12 mina883a9c0
12:14 pmCall for service5 min884d1996
1:26 pmEvents11 min47ab0b77
1:56 pmEvents15 mincfa77d26
2:08 pmCall for service16 min3f7f1e2d
2:50 pmCall for service6 minaad55f5f
3:17 pmOther9 min5b29c415
5:28 pmSearch16 min0de92b7f
6:08 pmEvents11 minbc1d4bed
6:42 pmEvents7 mind3b7d90f
6:46 pmEvents11 minf0e3143c
7:06 pmCall for service11 mine50c920c
7:22 pmTraining and testing8 min3fa4e411
7:36 pmCall for service14 min7003c128
8:15 pmCall for service8 min9d43f05f
8:27 pmEvents8 min8102c61f
8:44 pmEvents8 min70abdee2
8:47 pmCall for service6 min740f2dc7
8:56 pmOther10 min0bba3eb7
9:20 pmCall for service5 min6ca648a4
9:26 pmCall for service10 min5ae2fb93
9:52 pmCall for service12 min6e750432
10:38 pmCall for service15 min26a88439
11:34 pmEvents13 min1d5f659a

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.