St. Louis, Missouri: Police Drones Could Answer 911 Calls by Friday if Board Approves Policy

Police drones could be the first to arrive at some emergencies in St. Louis, Missouri, by the end of this week, if the city Board of Police Commissioners approves the operating rules on Wednesday.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department held an 11 a.m. briefing at police headquarters on Monday, November 2, to explain its Drone as First Responder program and the safeguards proposed for it. The department circulated a draft policy on Monday and posted it on its drone program page. The proposed special orders go to the Board of Police Commissioners at its Wednesday, November 4, meeting, and approval could let drone responses begin before the end of the week, the department told local stations. FOX 2 reported the first flights could come by Friday.

Six drones, three patrol areas

The plan puts six BRINC drones at docking stations across the North, Central and South patrol areas. The department says the sites are picked from crime trends, 911 call volume, response patterns and operational needs, not spread evenly across the map. The purchase is supported by the St. Louis Police Foundation and its donors.

The drones are not flown on routine patrol. Under the department's own guide, a drone launches only in response to a specific 911 call, is flown by trained, FAA certified personnel, and its camera points forward toward the horizon while it flies to the call. It tilts down only when it arrives. The department says a drone reaches a scene in about 70 seconds on average, livestreams video to the response team, and can follow a fleeing suspect until officers arrive. It then flies back to its charging base.

The aircraft are non-weaponized. The BRINC Responder carries a full HD camera with 40x zoom and a thermal imager, flies up to 42 minutes on a charge, and can carry small life saving payloads such as an AED, Narcan or EpiPens, the department says.

What the chief says, and what is still open

"This proposed program represents another important step in Investing in Safety and modernizing how public safety services are delivered throughout St. Louis," Chief Robert J. Tracy said when the unit was proposed. "Drone technology has the ability to enhance officer safety, improve response to 911 calls, provide critical situational awareness during rapidly evolving incidents, and support our officers with real-time information when seconds matter most."

The department first announced the Aerial Response Unit proposal on May 26, 2026. The board approved a drone acquisition agreement in May, but that vote bought the equipment. The vote on Wednesday decides the operating policies that govern when a drone can launch.

Those rules carry the open questions. The program has raised questions about privacy, surveillance, access to recorded footage and public oversight. The department says drone video is stored on U.S. based servers, encrypted, treated like other recorded evidence and subject to public records law, and that its executives are finishing the retention policy before the program launches. Calls the drones could answer include robberies, burglaries, missing person searches, disasters and mass casualty incidents, and the department also points to planning for major events, including the 2028 Olympic matches in St. Louis.