The LAPD’s black-and-white helicopters have long been a staple of local skies, allowing police to track suspects and patrol the city from above.
Now, air traffic congestion is increasing with the expansion of the department’s drone fleet.
The Los Angeles Police Department has become increasingly reliant on small, unmanned aerial vehicles since launching a “drones as first responders” pilot program in July.
In a report to be presented Tuesday to the Police Commission, LAPD officials said drones were deployed more than 3,500 times last year, mostly in response to emergency calls or officer requests for assistance.
In recent months, the devices have been deployed to incidents including home break-ins and calls about armed suspects. An online dashboard of LAPD flight activity showed that they were used at least 39 times on April 15 alone.
LAPD drones are powered by four sets of rotors. Each drone is about 3 feet wide and equipped with cameras and infrared night vision. Department officials say the drones take off from launchpads that are strategically located around the city. Once airborne, they can cover a distance of two miles in about two minutes, allowing police to more quickly monitor crime scenes and determine the appropriate response level.
The first LAPD helicopters flew in 1956 to help monitor traffic on the city’s growing highway system. Drones have been part of the department’s arsenal for more than a decade, but until recently their use was limited to a narrow set of incidents, most of which involved barricaded suspects or bomb threats.
Officials have made it clear that the drones are meant to supplement — not replace — the aging fleet of 17 helicopters, which is one of the largest fleets in the world for a municipal police department. At least two helicopters are kept in the air for about 20 hours every day.
In recent years, helicopters have received more and more complaints about high operating costs and potential health effects from noise pollution.
Some members of the communities where they frequent consider them an unwanted intrusion and reminder of the LAPD’s overbearing presence. Critics worry that quieter, agile drones will be used to surveil the public with less oversight.
news site intercept informed The department recently deployed drones to monitor crowds during the “No Kings” protests.
Karen Kaplan, professor emeritus at UC Davis, who has written about “weaponizing airspace” by police with the use of helicopters, said she is equally wary of the new generation of drones combining them with AI technology.
An LAPD SWAT officer holds a drone used by the department.
(Los Angeles Times)
“At least one police helicopter can be identified,” he said. “Small drones can be really harmful.”
Talk of expanding the role of drones has been ongoing for years, but gained momentum in 2025 after a public outcry over a series of high-profile thefts on the city’s Westside.
In a presentation before the Police Commission this year, department officials said they plan to expand the drone fleet from nine to 24 devices, which will launch from 17 docks spread across five police divisions.
A $1.2 million donation from the Police Foundation, the department’s private fundraising arm, is paying for some of the new drones.
Department officials say that half of the times drones were deployed, they reached the spot before the authorities. Officials say that in about 10% of the cases, they revealed information about the scene that allowed police to cancel other response units, saving valuable time and resources.
A recent incident described in a police search warrant affidavit involved a man with a gun who threatened a street vendor and his younger brother in the 2200 block of South Central Avenue before fleeing into an alley.
According to the affidavit, police dispatched a drone that appeared before officers and captured images of a man on the roof of a building who was kneeling and carrying a black object in his bag, which police believed was a handgun.
Responding officers subsequently surrounded the building and eventually took the 26-year-old suspect into custody, finding that he was in possession of a replica gun. Jail records show he was booked on suspicion of making criminal threats.
The report released by the department on Tuesday gives details of two drone accidents. The first incident occurred during the Dodgers’ victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series in November, when a drone “deployed for crowd control” suddenly lost “connectivity” due to the large number of cellphones operating in the area and crashed onto the sidewalk. A bystander threw it in the trash, the LAPD reports.
Four days later, a drone crashed into a high-rise building in the area of ​​Vermont Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard while flying at night, the report said.
Department officials said they plan to start sending drones in response to the occupation of the streets. Another proposed use: a mission to identify and cite people who set off illegal fireworks on July 4, New Year’s Eve and other holidays.
A controversial 2024 audit by the LA City Comptroller’s Office highlighted the high operating costs of LAPD helicopters. It concluded that the department spends about $50 million a year on police helicopters – more than the annual budgets of at least 14 city agencies.
The report found that helicopters spend less than half their flying time responding to violent crimes – a finding the department disputed in its report.
According to the 2022 budget assessment, LAPD officials concluded that using drones instead of helicopters during a SWAT situation could save the department approximately $3,500 per incident based on reduced fuel and maintenance costs.
The biggest hurdle to widespread expansion, officials say, is that existing drone technology lacks the range of helicopters. For now, the models used by the LAPD can only stay in the air for about half an hour before needing to recharge.
Former LAPD Deputy Chief John McMahon said replacing the department’s aging helicopters with drones would be a difficult task. But he said that could eventually happen as improved technology makes drones cheaper, faster and more capable than ever before.
“I think police officers need to look at the cost-benefit analysis at some point,” said McMahon, who served as the LAPD’s technology chief before retiring last year.
