16
drone flights over Philadelphia that day.
11:34 am
first takeoff; the last was at 10:35 pm.
15 min
median flight. Half were shorter.
Philadelphia police drones flew 16 times on Friday 16 January 2026, the first at 11:34 am and the last at 10:35 pm EST, by Philadelphia Police Department's published record.
One flight, takeoff to landingSensitive-purpose flight, as an area
Hour by hour
Takeoffs by hour, EST.
Why, in the agency's words
Flights, in order
16 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 (EST) | Purpose | Airborne | Flight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:34 am | Other | 10 min | ec337ad8 |
| 11:57 am | Other | 16 min | eb1289c5 |
| 12:26 pm | Other | 13 min | 025a2629 |
| 12:45 pm | Other | 15 min | 2e31e3b2 |
| 1:13 pm | Other | 9 min | 475d87cd |
| 1:26 pm | Other | 15 min | 7cf17e13 |
| 1:45 pm | Other | 15 min | 66fcaf98 |
| 2:12 pm | Other | 11 min | 41f45e23 |
| 2:29 pm | Other | 16 min | 4c52d75f |
| 2:52 pm | Call for service | 18 min | c4fa719d |
| 2:54 pm | Call for service | 9 min | ecc0b4d4 |
| 3:04 pm | Other | 9 min | 39cde6d7 |
| 3:27 pm | Call for service | 19 min | 69eb76d8 |
| 3:33 pm | Other | 18 min | b7bb097d |
| 4:11 pm | Call for service | 18 min | b1e43c2a |
| 10:35 pm | Not stated | 12 min | 6c68561e |
How this page is made
- Every flight in the agency's published record is counted and listed; drawn paths are the whole flight, takeoff to landing.
- 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 fixed list of terms; unmatched values are "Other" and blank ones "Not stated".
- Times are shown on the agency's own local clock.
- 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.