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

Rochester, Minnesota · one day

Wednesday 16 September 2026

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

14

drone flights over Rochester that day.

2:50 am

first takeoff; the last was at 10:02 pm.

13 min

median flight. Half were shorter.

Rochester police drones flew 14 times on Wednesday 16 September 2026, the first at 2:50 am and the last at 10:02 pm CDT, by Rochester Police Department's published record.

14 drawable flights of 14. 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 service57%
  2. Training and testing29%
  3. Events14%

Flights, in order

14 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
2:50 amEvents13 min9a276d00
8:47 amTraining and testing1 min 41 s63a2513b
9:32 amTraining and testing23 min78acf1a7
10:04 amTraining and testing18 mincbb79bf6
10:23 amTraining and testing16 min66b7ca6b
11:53 amEvents16 min01f587c5
2:40 pmCall for service3 min2e3fcd4d
6:59 pmCall for service6 min5b1a794e
7:11 pmCall for service11 min025d7b37
7:28 pmCall for service17 mine4bad4d5
8:02 pmCall for service16 min49b150ab
9:01 pmCall for service13 min45a5c82a
9:46 pmCall for service13 minaf2c100b
10:02 pmCall for service1 min 28 sbb1353d5

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.