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SFPD drone flights

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Where and why the Police Department flies drones, from its published flight log.

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SFPD drone flights in South of Market

Flights since May 16, 2024; the latest in the city's log is from Sep 30, 2026 · source updated Oct 22, 2026.

SFPD flew 936 operational drone flights to calls in South of Market in the twelve months to Sep 2026, 13% of the 7,235 citywide. That is 36.3 per 1,000 residents, 4.8× the citywide rate, rank 1 of 38 neighborhoods. Several flights can serve one call: these served 644 dispatch events. 1 more flight was for training or testing.

Where drones were sent: the intersections with the most operational flights. Each dot is the intersection of a call in South of Market drones were sent to, sized by operational flights, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026.
IntersectionFlights
4th St & Mission St37
Harrison St & Sherman St34
6th St & Mission St32
6th St & Stevenson St32
6th St & Golden Gate Ave & Market St & Taylor St28
Market St & Mason St & Turk St28
9th St & Mission St26
6th St & Minna St23
Minna St & Russ St21
6th St & Harrison St20
Bryant St & Jeff Adachi Way20
8th St & Stevenson St19
What the flights were for. South of Market, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026: 937 flights to calls here. Gray figures are citywide. Drone sent is the share of all police calls of that type in South of Market that had a flight, shown where there were at least 20 calls.
ReasonFlightsShareCitywide
Criminal Investigation92899%84%
Fire / Mutual Aid40%2%
Major or Critical Incidents40%2%
Training / Test10%12%
Call types that got a drone.
Call typeFlightsShareCitywideCallsDrone sent
WANTED VEHICLE / SUB9617%14%38011% (10%)
SUSPICIOUS PERSON7313%11%10,1200% (1%)
PERSON W/GUN6812%12%25922% (19%)
SUSPICIOUS VEHICLE5810%13%1,4513% (2%)
STRONGARM ROBBERY559%5%12724% (16%)
BURGLARY387%10%6484% (4%)
PERSON W/KNIFE387%5%30112% (8%)
MISC366%9%5665% (3%)
ASSAULT / BATTERY356%6%1,2483% (2%)
ROBBERY285%4%7819% (15%)
STABBING285%—6329% (18%)
TRAFFIC STOP264%—5,8810% (0%)
The calls that got a drone. Calls in South of Market that got a drone, with the citywide figure beside it.
ShareCalls
Priority A calls63% (citywide 65%)Priority A 408, B 107, C 128
Officer-initiated30% (citywide 29%)Officer on view 195, resident call 446
How calls with a drone ended. Resident calls in South of Market that got a drone, by the month of the call. SFPD plans a SoMa pilot this fall in which officers watching drone footage decide whether an officer is needed on site (Mission Local). Percentages appear for rows with at least 20 calls.
MonthCalls with a droneNo officer on sceneCancelledPriority lowered
Sep 20261034 (4%)2 (2%)1 (1%)
Aug 2026390 (0%)0 (0%)0 (0%)
Jul 2026311 (3%)0 (0%)0 (0%)
Jun 2026220 (0%)0 (0%)1 (5%)
May 2026290 (0%)0 (0%)1 (3%)
Apr 2026261 (4%)0 (0%)0 (0%)
Mar 2026290 (0%)0 (0%)0 (0%)
Feb 2026280 (0%)0 (0%)0 (0%)
Jan 2026290 (0%)0 (0%)0 (0%)
Dec 202518000
Nov 2025410 (0%)0 (0%)0 (0%)
Oct 2025370 (0%)0 (0%)0 (0%)
Oct 2025 to Sep 20264326 (1%)2 (0%)3 (1%)
A year earlier1351 (1%)1 (1%)7 (5%)
Neighborhoods ranked by flights per resident. Operational flights per 1,000 residents, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026. Citywide counts the flights to calls with a known location, divided by the whole city's residents. Areas under 1,000 residents are listed last, without a rate.
#NeighborhoodPer 1,000 residents× citywideFlightsDispatch events
Citywide7.51.0×6,265
1South of Market36.34.8×936644
2Financial District/South Beach21.82.9×533354
3Tenderloin20.42.7×656421
4Mission17.92.4×987644
5North Beach13.71.8×15293
6Presidio10.81.4×4216
7Bayview Hunters Point10.11.3×381237
8Mission Bay8.21.1×145106
9Western Addition8.01.1×179126
10Nob Hill7.81.0×183100
11Chinatown7.51.0×9147
12Japantown7.21.0×2921
13Treasure Island7.00.9×1713
14Potrero Hill6.80.9×10966
15Lakeshore6.50.9×7842
16Hayes Valley6.40.8×12187
17Russian Hill6.40.8×11160
18Castro/Upper Market5.70.8×12599
19Bernal Heights5.20.7×12668
20Pacific Heights5.10.7×11666
21Marina5.10.7×11891
22Portola4.90.6×7242
23Twin Peaks3.40.4×2614
24Noe Valley3.40.4×7643
25Presidio Heights3.30.4×3226
26Inner Richmond3.00.4×6124
27Excelsior2.60.3×9737
28Outer Richmond2.50.3×10871
29Seacliff2.40.3×66
30Visitacion Valley2.20.3×3729
31Haight Ashbury2.20.3×3730
32Lone Mountain/USF2.20.3×3526
33Sunset/Parkside2.20.3×162105
34Inner Sunset2.00.3×5431
35Glen Park1.60.2×1413
36Outer Mission1.50.2×3322
37West of Twin Peaks1.40.2×5232
38Oceanview/Merced/Ingleside1.40.2×3319
—Golden Gate Park——7937
—McLaren Park——108
—Lincoln Park——65

Method

Source: SFPD Drone Flight Logs (giw5-ttjs on DataSF), one row per flight since May 16, 2024. Flights logged as training or testing are not counted as operational. The log has recorded them only since September 2025. Each flight is placed at the location of its call in the police dispatch data, matched by CAD number, the same way the police page places calls. The log's own location is the general area of the operation and can be a launch site, so it is not used. 86% of operational flights match a dispatch record with a location. The rest count citywide only. A month appears once the city's log covers its last day. The 12-week and 4-week periods end at the latest flight in the log. Until September 2025 the reason for a flight was free text. Since then it is one of a few set categories. Where the log gives an incident report number instead of a CAD number, as it often did before October 2025, the flight is linked through that report's CAD number. For each call type, the share with a drone counts police calls of that original type, minus duplicates but including cancelled calls, that had a flight on the day of the call or the next day. About one linked flight in ten comes later, as a follow-up investigation, and is not counted in that share or in the month-by-month table. Rates divide by the 2020–2024 American Community Survey population. Drones are sent to serious, active incidents, so these calls are not typical police calls. Nothing here is compared with response times.

Every figure here is also in https://sfresponse.org/data/drones.json.

Operational flights per month

Citywide

Where drones were sent

Most flights

What the flights were for

Stated reason

Call type of the linked dispatch

The calls that got a drone

How calls with a drone ended

Neighborhoods ranked by flights per resident