CityDroneWatch
  1. CityDroneWatch
  2. Pennsylvania
  3. Philadelphia
  4. January 2026
  5. 21

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · one day

Wednesday 21 January 2026

13 drone flights from Philadelphia Police Department's published record.

13

drone flights over Philadelphia that day.

10:14 am

first takeoff; the last was at 8:04 pm.

16 min

median flight. Half were shorter.

Philadelphia police drones flew 13 times on Wednesday 21 January 2026, the first at 10:14 am and the last at 8:04 pm EST, by Philadelphia Police Department's published record.

13 drawable flights of 13. 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

  1. Other31%
  2. Patrol support23%
  3. Call for service15%
  4. Not stated15%
  5. Training and testing15%

Flights, in order

13 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)PurposeAirborneFlight
10:14 amOther16 min241a474b
10:33 amOther18 minb10906fc
10:37 amCall for service21 min5b616798
10:38 amNot stated24 min85059cf8
11:00 amCall for service23 min22624cf3
11:03 amNot stated21 min2a1ce34f
11:20 amOther16 min7f2eb844
12:09 pmTraining and testing8 minf7bf0eaa
1:22 pmOther11 min1bb9e4c7
2:47 pmTraining and testing2 min878c52e3
7:35 pmPatrol support18 min8cec965f
7:47 pmPatrol support16 min35b8e305
8:04 pmPatrol support15 min9d11dee3

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: file an issue in the korvid-labs repository (demo).