drone flights over Philadelphia that day.

11:00 am

first takeoff; the last was at 9:50 pm.

15 min

median flight. Half were shorter.

Philadelphia police drones flew 23 times on Tuesday 20 January 2026, the first at 11:00 am and the last at 9:50 pm EST, by Philadelphia Police Department's published record.

23 drawable flights of 23. 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, EST.

12a1a2a3a4a5a6a7a8a9a10a11a12p1p2p3p4p5p6p7p8p9p10p11p

Why, in the agency's words

Other78%
Call for service17%
Training and testing4%

Flights, in order

23 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
11:00 am	Other	18 min	`d8cafa30`
11:28 am	Other	18 min	`c2f8e2d3`
11:57 am	Other	10 min	`1b584622`
12:09 pm	Other	17 min	`becb060f`
12:18 pm	Other	8 min	`e9ed60de`
12:32 pm	Other	17 min	`722d9f37`
12:45 pm	Other	8 min	`23bc5d3a`
12:55 pm	Other	15 min	`443c3d23`
1:11 pm	Other	16 min	`d2664de3`
1:27 pm	Other	16 min	`f3b88e1b`
1:48 pm	Other	14 min	`d74aa1c2`
2:07 pm	Other	15 min	`41ac4e3e`
2:11 pm	Other	14 min	`73a1605d`
2:33 pm	Other	17 min	`ed0ad0ba`
2:43 pm	Other	11 min	`04cfe2c9`
2:56 pm	Training and testing	13 min	`37d1d4ca`
3:13 pm	Other	14 min	`bd47dec5`
3:50 pm	Other	16 min	`5cb7c579`
4:08 pm	Other	17 min	`233b3154`
6:18 pm	Call for service	4 min	`ad231026`
6:29 pm	Call for service	16 min	`245dbfb4`
6:31 pm	Call for service	10 min	`6d967ea8`
9:50 pm	Call for service	9 min	`671e321f`

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.