drone flights over Philadelphia that day.

11:40 am

first takeoff; the last was at 11:37 pm.

11 min

median flight. Half were shorter.

Philadelphia police drones flew 13 times on Friday 3 April 2026, the first at 11:40 am and the last at 11:37 pm EDT, 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, EDT.

12a1a2a3a4a5a6a7a8a9a10a11a12p1p2p3p4p5p6p7p8p9p10p11p

Why, in the agency's words

Training and testing38%
Call for service38%
Drone as first responder15%
Traffic and crashes8%

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 (EDT)	Purpose	Airborne	Flight
11:40 am	Training and testing	1 min 13 s	`23167a5b`
12:13 pm	Training and testing	25 min	`dbcf4469`
1:37 pm	Training and testing	42 s	`feea3138`
2:20 pm	Drone as first responder	10 min	`f29c2e75`
2:22 pm	Drone as first responder	7 min	`97235347`
9:54 pm	Call for service	14 min	`ce126c51`
10:20 pm	Traffic and crashes	13 min	`5ec411a0`
10:34 pm	Training and testing	1 min 16 s	`c16c2c2c`
10:35 pm	Training and testing	1 min 44 s	`94845d30`
10:38 pm	Call for service	16 min	`f9d9c09b`
10:54 pm	Call for service	18 min	`55bf7efe`
11:15 pm	Call for service	18 min	`81ecc15e`
11:37 pm	Call for service	11 min	`5988c20d`

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.