drone flights over Philadelphia that day.

10:15 am

first takeoff; the last was at 8:46 pm.

15 min

median flight. Half were shorter.

Philadelphia police drones flew 17 times on Wednesday 15 July 2026, the first at 10:15 am and the last at 8:46 pm EDT, by Philadelphia Police Department's published record.

17 drawable flights of 17. 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

Call for service53%
Events18%
Patrol support12%
Search12%
Traffic and crashes6%

Flights, in order

17 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
10:15 am	Call for service	15 min	`4b3452a5`
11:15 am	Patrol support	14 min	`8fec7be5`
11:48 am	Search	19 min	`8d2b5367`
12:08 pm	Search	12 min	`5ac8ae1b`
12:16 pm	Call for service	12 min	`92e9cf6f`
12:19 pm	Call for service	19 min	`6c9523a1`
1:00 pm	Call for service	9 min	`4b96bfc3`
2:28 pm	Call for service	10 min	`a37f2b77`
2:41 pm	Call for service	15 min	`cf39a837`
2:50 pm	Patrol support	16 min	`ba6a165f`
3:20 pm	Call for service	8 min	`7d50f14a`
3:26 pm	Call for service	21 min	`99c06ffd`
3:34 pm	Call for service	15 min	`e2841f0d`
4:15 pm	Traffic and crashes	7 min	`f0ff1efa`
6:26 pm	Events	22 min	`202e1d6b`
8:01 pm	Events	17 min	`d3cbdddc`
8:46 pm	Events	19 min	`9ec4a85c`

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.