EFF Records Show Over 1,000 Agencies Cleared by FAA for Autonomous Police Drone Programs

First reported: August 10, 2026 · 1 source

Public records obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and released in July show that more than 1,000 law enforcement and public safety agencies had received Federal Aviation Administration waivers, as of February, to fly drones beyond the visual line of sight for "drone-as-first-responder" programs. EFF says the FAA streamlined its waiver process in April 2025 and approved more such waivers between then and February 2026 than in the previous seven years combined. The expansion parallels the spread of automated license plate readers, with vendors including Flock Safety, Axon, Motorola Solutions and Skydio bundling drone, ALPR and body camera footage into searchable systems. Flock Safety states its drones carry ALPR cameras able to read plates from up to 2,000 feet.

Why this matters

The same procurement and integration patterns that spread ALPR networks are now being applied to aerial surveillance, often through federal waivers rather than local approval votes. Whether city councils learn of these programs before or after they launch is emerging as a central oversight question.

Key facts

EFF records indicate more than 1,000 law enforcement and public safety agencies held FAA beyond-visual-line-of-sight waivers as of February; EFF says most recipients are police agencies.
Metro Nashville Police Department launched a trial drone program without a city council vote or hearing and announced on August 6 that it would end the trial; the council is weighing restrictions.
Activists with Eye on Surveillance said New Orleans police altered internal rules to permit drones to carry weapons with the superintendent's approval; police described it as a draft proposal, though Verite News reported the file name suggested a June 21 effective date.
Wired published an investigation on July 13 into San Francisco Police Department drone footage that was inadvertently exposed on Skydio's website and found by researchers Sam Curry and Maik Robert.
ACLU privacy analyst Jay Stanley wrote on July 17 that drone observation of windows and rooftops raises unsettled Fourth Amendment questions, particularly in dense urban settings.

Sources

This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.

First Came the Flock Cameras. Now Local Cops Want Autonomous Drones. (Truthout, August 10, 2026)

About this record

BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.

Updated August 13, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.