AI drones are America's newest cops (www.axios.com)

Police and sheriff’s departments across the U.S. are rapidly adopting AI-powered drones for pursuits, investigations and emergency response — even delivering Narcan to overdose victims. By late 2024 about 1,500 agencies were flying drones (a 150% jump since 2018), buoyed by federal grants and state budgets because drones cost a fraction of manned helicopters. Agencies use them as first-responder units for real-time aerial views, license-plate reads, crowd monitoring, search-and-rescue, accident reconstruction, and in some cases beyond-line-of-sight operations (Albuquerque won an FAA waiver). Vendors say these platforms combine cameras, sensors and image/analytics AI to interpret footage and flag suspects or biometric signals; one maker told Axios its drones can even estimate heart rate, breathing and oxygenation from 500 meters. The shift matters because understaffed departments seek tools that reduce risky face-to-face encounters and expand situational awareness, but it raises legal and privacy alarms. Critics note that raw drone footage is only as useful as the analytics and data systems it feeds — and those systems, often run by private firms, may retain highly detailed biometric and location data with unclear oversight. Civil-rights groups have already sued over warrantless backyard surveillance, and activists warn laws lag behind capabilities. The coming battles over regulation, data retention and limits on biometric collection will determine whether drones enhance public safety or normalize pervasive aerial surveillance.