drone flights over Philadelphia that day.

11:08 am

first takeoff; the last was at 11:07 pm.

9 min

median flight. Half were shorter.

Philadelphia police drones flew 19 times on Friday 15 May 2026, the first at 11:08 am and the last at 11:07 pm EDT, by Philadelphia Police Department's published record.

19 drawable flights of 19. 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

Drone as first responder47%
Call for service37%
Not stated16%

Flights, in order

19 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
11:08 am	Drone as first responder	11 min	`36efdaed`
11:34 am	Not stated	6 min	`6f135a74`
12:14 pm	Not stated	9 min	`2d9a661c`
12:24 pm	Drone as first responder	7 min	`7dc8f1ec`
1:25 pm	Drone as first responder	7 min	`c69e4853`
1:37 pm	Call for service	10 min	`8ad38373`
1:41 pm	Drone as first responder	9 min	`58c04922`
1:57 pm	Call for service	7 min	`577b70aa`
2:05 pm	Call for service	4 min	`c2ef4451`
2:18 pm	Not stated	17 min	`d7948f66`
2:53 pm	Call for service	10 min	`1e39d5a8`
2:54 pm	Drone as first responder	10 min	`211748ab`
3:43 pm	Drone as first responder	9 min	`32d09188`
3:51 pm	Drone as first responder	9 min	`e8cc0b9f`
6:06 pm	Drone as first responder	17 min	`6b603197`
8:32 pm	Drone as first responder	19 min	`2c9d98f3`
9:39 pm	Call for service	16 min	`9e4b4fc2`
10:14 pm	Call for service	11 min	`719b87ef`
11:07 pm	Call for service	8 min	`e62a0248`

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.