Where and why the Police Department flies drones, from its published flight log.
Loading…
Flights since May 16, 2024; the latest in the city's log is from Aug 31, 2026 · source updated Sep 25, 2026.
SFPD flew 574 operational drone flights to calls in Central (Police District A) in the twelve months to Aug 2026, 9% of the 6,464 citywide. That is 9.1 per 1,000 residents, 1.4× the citywide rate, rank 4 of 10 police districts. Several flights can serve one call: these served 335 dispatch events.
| Intersection | Flights |
|---|---|
| Geary St & Powell St | 23 |
| Geary St & Grant Ave | 16 |
| Kearny St & Sacramento St | 15 |
| Beach St & Taylor St | 14 |
| Turk Murphy Ln & Vallejo St | 11 |
| Hyde St & Pine St | 10 |
| Post St & Stockton St | 9 |
| Powell St & Vandewater St | 9 |
| Chestnut St & Leavenworth St | 8 |
| Geary St & Jones St | 8 |
| Geary St & Leavenworth St | 8 |
| Hyde St & Sutter St | 8 |
| Reason | Flights | Share | Citywide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Investigation | 552 | 96% | 83% |
| Fire / Mutual Aid | 15 | 3% | 2% |
| Major or Critical Incidents | 7 | 1% | 2% |
| Call type | Flights | Share | Citywide | Calls | Drone sent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SUSPICIOUS PERSON | 59 | 16% | 11% | 4,647 | 1% (0%) |
| PERSON W/GUN | 58 | 16% | 12% | 163 | 20% (17%) |
| WANTED VEHICLE / SUB | 46 | 12% | 15% | 136 | 9% (10%) |
| AUTO BOOST / STRIP | 35 | 9% | 6% | 277 | 5% (4%) |
| SUSPICIOUS VEHICLE | 34 | 9% | 13% | 750 | 2% (2%) |
| BURGLARY | 26 | 7% | 9% | 794 | 3% (3%) |
| STOLEN VEHICLE | 20 | 5% | — | 171 | 6% (4%) |
| STRONGARM ROBBERY | 20 | 5% | 5% | 63 | 13% (14%) |
| ASSAULT / BATTERY | 19 | 5% | 5% | 1,046 | 2% (1%) |
| WELL BEING CHECK | 19 | 5% | — | 1,732 | 0% (0%) |
| GRAND THEFT | 18 | 5% | — | 158 | 7% (4%) |
| PETTY THEFT | 18 | 5% | — | 986 | 1% (1%) |
| Share | Calls | |
|---|---|---|
| Priority A calls | 64% (citywide 63%) | Priority A 214, B 36, C 85 |
| Officer-initiated | 29% (citywide 32%) | Officer on view 98, resident call 237 |
| Month | Calls with a drone | No officer on scene | Cancelled | Priority lowered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 35 | 1 (3%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
| Jul 2026 | 27 | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
| Jun 2026 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 26 | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
| Apr 2026 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2026 | 21 | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 1 (5%) |
| Feb 2026 | 26 | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
| Jan 2026 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2025 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Nov 2025 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2025 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All months since Jun 2024 | 305 | 8 (3%) | 2 (1%) | 6 (2%) |
| # | Police district | Per 1,000 residents | × citywide | Flights | Dispatch events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citywide | 6.7 | 1.0× | 5,530 | ||
| 1 | Southern (Police District B) | 21.4 | 3.2× | 1,314 | 858 |
| 2 | Tenderloin (Police District J) | 12.1 | 1.8× | 385 | 237 |
| 3 | Mission (Police District D) | 11.7 | 1.8× | 919 | 585 |
| 4 | Central (Police District A) | 9.1 | 1.4× | 574 | 335 |
| 5 | Bayview (Police District C) | 8.1 | 1.2× | 544 | 325 |
| 6 | Northern (Police District E) | 7.2 | 1.1× | 700 | 437 |
| 7 | Richmond (Police District G) | 3.8 | 0.6× | 311 | 159 |
| 8 | Park (Police District F) | 3.2 | 0.5× | 196 | 121 |
| 9 | Ingleside (Police District H) | 2.2 | 0.3× | 300 | 168 |
| 10 | Taraval (Police District I) | 1.8 | 0.3× | 271 | 166 |
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. 85% 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.